Sara Bareilles braved the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium stage Saturday night for the final show of her Blessed Unrest tour alongside opening act Harper Blynn.
Bareilles played many songs from her latest album, The Blessed Unrest, as well as some of her well-known classics including “Love Song,” “King of Anything” and “Many The Miles.”
“I just think that Sara Bareilles is so funny, so, so talented, and she had a way of making it seem like it was just me and her,” said Caroline Bresnahan, a sophomore studying middle-childhood education. “She connected with the audience well.”
Bareilles closed the first part of her performance with her newest single, “Brave,” which was written with Jack Antonoff of the band fun. for a friend of Bareilles’ who was struggling with coming out.
“I hope as humans, we make room for others to be exactly who they need to be,” she said.
After exiting the stage to a standing ovation, Bareilles reappeared for an encore with the songs “I Choose You” and “Gravity.”
Ohio University was the last stop of the tour named after Bareilles’s latest album, which was released in July.
The album and tour name derives from the “tumultuous” year Bareilles had in 2012, which saw the end of a long-term relationship and her subsequent move from her home of 14 years in Los Angeles to New York City, she said.
“I spent a lot of time on my knees, asking for strength. So being a singer-songwriter, I put those feelings into song,” Bareilles said.
Opening act Harper Blynn was also well-received by the audience. Set against a cascading white sheet that reflected the rhythmic lighting queues, the four-man band from New York opened the night with a set of their indie originals and earned a standing ovation at the end of their performance.
Bresnahan said she was surprised at how good the band was.
“That’s the exact kind of music I listen to so I really enjoyed it,” Bresnahan said. “I was annoyed everyone was sitting down.”
The final attendance for the performance was 1,198, according to Robert Faris, a house manager at MemAud and a senior studying journalism.
ed414911@ohiou.edu
@erindavoran
