Sara Bareilles Chronicles Boston Crowd Through 'Good Grief'

Last updated: 14 Sep 2026, 16:25:38
Published: 14 Sep 2026, 16:25:38
Written by: noahjwade_
Photography by: Corwin Wickersham IV
Categories: On Tour NowTour DatesReviews Tagged: Sara Bareilles The Good Grief Tour MGM Music Hall at Fenway Sara Bareilles at MGM Music Hall at Fenway

Sara Bareilles kicked off her long-awaited Good Grief Tour this past Wednesday night at Boston’s MGM Music Hall at Fenway. The 27-show, US-based endeavor is her first official touring run since 2019’s Amidst The Chaos Tour, though Bareilles has popped up on many, many stages in the years following. From inducting Carly Simon into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2022 with a performance of the Marvin Hamlisch composed and Simon sung “Nobody Does It Better" from the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me to multi-show residencies at the now-shuttered Rockwood Music Hall on Houston St. in NYC and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in DC, and an intimate performance at the Tribeca Film Festival, Bareilles has remained active.

The tour does not feature an opening act, allowing Bareilles to perform a prolonged set by her lonesome.

Performing 12 of Good Grief’s 14 tracks across her 21-song setlist, Bareilles played a majority of the album, largely in order, throughout the main portion of the evening. None were debuted for the first time, as many pre-tour appearances were used to test new material in front of a minimal, typically art-centric, audience. Subsequent encores, in the aftermath of the Good Grief set, were reserved for her beloved hits, a cover, and a somewhat regularly utilized deep cut to close out the show.

A snippet of “Wind Is The Weather,” Good Grief’s penultimate track, is played over tape as the introduction to the show, and with Bareilles behind the proscenium. She makes her way out to the stage for “Home,” playing a Cumberland River Dulcimer. With vocals nearly identical to the studio version, Bareilles reaffirms that she is, in fact, the real deal.

Before jumping into “Still Crying,” described by Bareilles, with a laugh, as a song “about tears,” she prefaced the crowd with what they could expect. “We’re doing things a little differently. This record has been all about turning over the experience of grief, and loss. I know some of you already know, I’ve gone through a lot of loss, as have so many of you. So, tonight, we’re going to take you through the record, and we’ve got some surprises in store.”

A bit further into the first quarter of the set was “Hands Off My Body,” arguably the most politically direct track of the project, having been written in the wake of the fall of Roe v. Wade, appalling decisions regarding abortion rights, and the Epstein files, just to name a few. “Sometimes, as a woman, I just want to be like, ‘What the FUCK,’ you guys, because we ALSO get our periods, and those suck too,” she said in an animated fashion just prior to launching into it. From the balcony, a singular fan yelled, “SAY IT, GIRL!” as the initial collective reaction began to cease. She’d mesh “… Body” together with the funky Amidst the Chaos track “Armor” and a snippet of “Saint Honesty” from the same record (where is “Poetry by Dead Men,” Ms. Bareilles??)

Stank face-worthy Good Grief track “Capsize Me,” played alongside GG's “Many the Miles,” displayed yet another standout vocal showing by Bareilles, who stuck her tongue out at her band upon completion of a well-executed guitar solo. Continuing the lightheartedness with the musical comedy-like “Nervous Breakdown,” Bareilles shimmied out of focus from the spotlight and joked that she would likely forget the words to the lyric heavy song. For all intents and purposes, she did not.

“Gravity,” plopped near the end of the main set, received a rousing ovation, as expected. This tune, a rare case of a song that seems to exist by itself even as thousands of people attempt to quietly sing along to it, as to not disturb the moment onstage, is in a revered league of its own. An early iteration was included on Bareilles’s debut record, 2004’s Careful Confessions, but would not make a significant impact. It wasn’t until it was reissued and reimagined for Little Voice two years later that it would become a critically acclaimed AC pop standard.

Moving to the first of two encore sections, Bareilles couldn’t resist the magnetism of a cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),” bringing the crowd out of adult contemporary world for just a moment. She concluded the section with a strong run of “Love Song” (Little Voice) “Uncharted” and “King of Anything” (Kaleidoscope Heart), and “Brave” (The Blessed Unrest).

Bareilles recently spoke about “Love Song” on the Zach Sang Show, admitting to its opening line, “Head under water, and you tell me to breathe easy for a while” acting as a nod to early touring partners Maroon 5’s “Harder To Breathe.” The highly stylized version performed here, particularly with the harmony-fueled breakdown in the bridge, is surely the result of an artist seeking to consistently explore new facets of cherished hits.

“Brave” remains an adopted anthem by the LGBTQ+ community, yet reaches far beyond. A principal moment of any Bareilles show, she’d fully turned towards the audience and motion for them to sing on several occasions, beaming with pride when they obliged. Yet another tough vocal, deceivingly so as a radio hit, she altered the melody when necessary but generally stuck with what is known.

The second encore set consisted of “She Used To Be Mine” (Waitress), “Salt The Sour Then Sweet” (Good Grief), and “Let The Rain” (Kaleidoscope Heart), the latter two played with no separation. Now a canon musical theatre audition pick, as well as a pop crossover tune, “She Used To Be Mine” is an advantageous choice this deep into a set, but, as always, Bareilles attacks it without fear. In this instance, it is played solo on the piano, and sung with an ease and a comfortability that was rather astounding. Cocking her head back for much of the tune’s lengthy climax, Bareilles exhibited little to no tension in her neck as she hammered out one extended mixed belt after another.

It’s followed by the Good Grief focus track, sans Brandi Carlile, slated in a spot typically reserved for “Gravity.” Last up is “Let The Rain,” characterized as a “bottom of the barrel” moment. Despite this, there’s significant optimism in its plucky, midtempo nature. Long time fans knew just when to participate in a collective clap as the dynamic markings steadily grew, and when to stop. As Bareilles sang her proclamations, she let out several exhilarated exclamations of “WOOOOOO!,” and basked in the adulation as she stepped off the stage.