Okay so I’ve thought this for quite a while but every now and then something happens to make me remember how great she is!

So she was in London again on Sunday doing a sold out gig at ‘La Scala’ in Kings Cross. This is her second concert in the country and I’m glad to be able to say that I was at her first one too earlier this year at Bush Hall. I’ve learnt that it’s usually a bit hit and miss to get a good view at small venues like this when the act had a big piano potentially blocking your line of view so I got there pretty early and froze outside until the doors opened at 7:45 to ensure I was the first one through those doors!

The support act was a guy called Rod Thomaswho was a folk-sounding singer but with an electornic sort of twist. He was layering the track live and I was fascinated with how he was doing it as I’ve never seen this done live before. I was pleasantly surprised with him and was wishing he’d done more than the 4 or 5 song that he did.

Anyway Sara came on stage just after 9pm and opened with Bottle It Up which until that night I’d never been too crazy about. For some reason the live version on Sunday just did it for me a lot more than when I saw her in June and it has now become one of my favorites off the album!  (I especially like the slightly fiestier unplugged version off iTunes). 

Next up was Morningside which I think always comes across great live! Tonight was no exception. I think she was really feeling the excitement in the room..the crowd was much better than the one at Bush Hall – they seemed to be genuine Sara fans rather than just general music fans who wanted to check out the ‘new girl’.
Love on the Rocks is my favorite song off her latest album (most of the time anyway..it’s changes sometimes).  She really shows off her voice and she definitely does it well!

City was next which I was really glad about since it wasn’t on the set-list for the last gig. She introduced it by saying that when she moved to Los Angeles she had a hard time finding people she felt comfortable around because a lot of people in L.A suck and the song is about feeling very lost in a big city. This song has definitely stuck with me recently after moving to a big city the same as she did and the whole song really sums up all the emotions involved. I think a lot of people in the room that night could relate as well since most of them probably weren’t originally from London as is the case with lots of people who live here.

After this she asked ‘Where are all the ladies at??’ and got all the guys off stage to sing Fairytale, her independant girl-power song exposing what might go on the day after happily ever after. I love the lyrics to this song. They’re honest, funny, intelligently chosen and basically ‘very Sara’, which makes you wonder why no one’s done a song like this before. The audience were singing along to this quite a lot and Sara seemed pretty overwhelmed by the fact that people were actually doing this (which made the crowd sing even louder). This was one of many moments during the show that she said how much fun she was having and how lucky she felt to be doing what she was doing. Unlike most singers who say this on stage, I genuinely believed every word.

So next up was a song which she performed last time and really surprised me. She got up away from the piano and sang  ‘Oh Darlin’  (originally done by The Beatles) which she introduced by saying it’s one of her favorite songs to do live because it’s so fun to sing. This is probably the reason she pulls it off so well, she clearly enjoys singing it and you could imagine her spending many years singing it into her bedroom mirror with a hairbrush.

Her next ’standing-up’ song was a ‘new’ one (which she also did at her last London gig) called August Moon. She explains the meaning behind her song being about her ex-boyfriend who she found cheating on her and then starts laughing at the crowds reaction (which was mainly booing aimed at the ex) and saying that she loves being able to make other people angry at him although she then insists that he really is a nice guy.

The next song she sang (back at the piano now) was Come Round Soon which she prefaced by quoting what a journalist once said about the song in an album review, that the song was apparently about her estranged father who walked out on her (which didn’t happen). She also sang a couple of lines from Katy Perry’s song ‘I Kissed a Girl’ in reference to a stab she made at Katy earlier in the set.

Love Song was the next song and was understandably well recieved due to the fact that it’s the only single released here as of yet.  The crowd were singing along pretty loudly during this and she encouraged by letting us sing the chorus while she continued just playing the piano with a huge smile on her face. She finished the song and joined in the applause herself, letting out a little ‘yay’ into the microphone before saying how much she was enjoying this. She then spoke a bit before the next song saying “Thank you for creating something so beautiful here tonight. Y’all are just amazing and very special to be here and supporting live music. We’re so appreciative..” and then jokingly added “But don’t walk out cus you’ve heard Love Song already!  I’m not into that bulls*it!”

She than sang Many The Miles, another of my favorites to hear live. She inserted a crowd sing-along part for us (since we were so vocal for the rest of the concert) and had a lot of fun teaching us what to sing and when to sing, saying that once she gaves us the cue we can just erupt and it will be so awesome. She did. We did. And it was.

She disappeared off the stage for a while leaving the audience cheering, applauding, chanting and even foot stamping until she came back on with the band launching straight into Vegas and then the last song of the night which was the incredible Gravity. Several members of the audience were shouting out to her to play Gravity which for me and many others is probably the highlight of the night. The song is so emotionally powerfull and beautiful on CD and is somehow a hundred times better live. The crowd remained silent the whole way through except for at the end of ‘that high note’ where the place erupted into cheering. Being only inches away from her hands on the piano while singing that song meant I had goosebumps from start to finish. There aren’t many song that manage to do that to me, especially more than once. 

So the concert ended and we all made our way outside past the merch stand, (which was only selling merch for Rod Thomas, not Sara) noticing a few people lingering around the back door. I decided to try my luck and wait too since there weren’t too many others waiting (I hate it when so many people hang around and make it impossible for the act to leave) as I wanted to say hello and tell her how much I’d enjoyed the concert. By now it’s was pretty cold outside and I really wasn’t dressed for the weather but made my mind up that I’d stay till whatever time I had to since I’d let her walk right past me 3 times earlier that day without even managing to utter a ‘hello’ to her.

The security man told us it would be at least an hour or hour an a half until she came out but we said we didn’t mind so we waited…and waited…and waited, passing the time by talking to the security guard and asking him every question under the sun about himself. Sure enough at about 11:15, an hour after we started waiting the doors opened (almost knocking me to my feet as they did) and out came Sara and her tour manager, Chad. Luckily the other fans waiting were really sensible and simply wanted to say hi like I did so there was no pushing or shoving and everything was nice and civilised for a change.

I spoke to Sara and told her how amazing the concert was and also that I was at her last concert in London which she seemed pretty surprised about since the venue was pretty tiny back then. I asked if she’d sign my set-list that I’d taken from the stage, which she did, and then Chad asked if I wanted a photo with her, which he then took. Sara noticed how cold I was as she put her arm around me for the photo and asked how long I’d been standing outside for, to which I replied ‘most of the day’. She then hugged me and started rubbing my arms as she was talking to warm me up  I, of course, told her that it was completely worth it and she thanked me before hugging me again. I said goodbye and ran down the street to catch my last tube home.

*All photographs taken by me, click song title links for youtube videos created entirely by me. No infringement.*