Amidst the Chaos: Live by Sara Bareilles | Album Review
She’s not gonna write you a pop song.
In a November 2019 show, Sara Bareilles achieved a dream she once thought impossible: headlining the Hollywood Bowl. A stop on her 2019 Amidst the Chaos Tour, Bareilles created an intimate experience indicative of the coffee-shop folk of her most recent studio album, 2019’s Amidst the Chaos, while paying homage to her pop mainstay tracks, as well as other projects from recent years.
Amidst the Chaos does not have a title track. Bareilles plucked the titular phrase from the chorus of track eight, “Orpheus,” on which she sings, “Don’t stop/ trying to find me here/ amidst the chaos.” Beginning the concert with this relatively unknown number may have been risky, but when Bareilles swings into the second number “Fire,” also a track from Amidst the Chaos, the melancholy opening became a mere teaser that set an intimate tone for the night.
Popular artists usually conclude a concert with their biggest hit. However, Bareilles tosses this precedent aside, performing her biggest hit, 2008’s “Love Song” as the fifth number in the live show. While she saves several recognizable hits for the end of the concert (such as 2013’s “Brave”) her early dispatch of “Love Song” is emblematic of her new ambivalence to her status as a pop star.
