Brandi Carlile’s 2023 summer tour started in her home state of Washington with two epic nights at the Gorge Amphitheater. From there, the seven-time Grammy Award winner touches almost every corner of the country, ultimately landing back on the west coast in the fall. However, this Brandi Carlile summer tour comes in three different formats and setlist types.
Let me explain.
Carlile kicked off a massive stadium tour this week in Toronto. Sporting a Blue Jay baby blue suit, Carlile and her band began their trek opening for P!NK on her “Summer Carnival Tour.” Prior to that, there were six shows up on the east coast. This included a headlining slot at the Levitate Music and Arts Festival. Directly before and after that were mellow acoustic performances in New Jersey and New York.
However, Carlile’s summer tour began with a bang. On June 9 and 10, the aforementioned “Echoes Through The Canyon” shows at the Gorge set the bar high. First of all, Joni Mitchell was part of the show. Carlile was instrumental in Mitchell making her first concert appearance at last summer’s Newport Folk Festival since her 2015 brain aneurysm. Now, almost a year later, Mitchell’s “Joni Jam” on night two of “Echoes Through The Canyon” consisted of Mitchell partaking in 24 songs.
The two nights included an all-star cast joining Carlile. Annie Lennox, Mark Isham, Wendy & Lisa, Lucius, Marcus Mumford, Sarah McLachlan, and Taylor Goldsmith were all on-hand to help make this a memorable start to the summer.
What’s On Tap
Now, there are 27 dates still ahead for Carlile. The 2023 itinerary concludes on October 14 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Of those 27 shows, 15 are supporting P!NK at some of the biggest MLB ballparks in the country. In fact, after her opening night in Toronto, Carlile posted on her Instagram that, “Night one with P!NK might be the most massive crowd I’ve ever played for.”
The rest of the dates are a mix of outdoor theatre shows, festivals, and another solo acoustic performance in Delaware.
How Are These Show Types And Setlists Different?
What you need to know here is that Brandi Carlile’s seven-record catalog is flexible enough where one setlist does not fit all. So far, we have seen these three different show types open with three different songs.
It would certainly be much easier for Carlile and her crew to play a similar set each night. Their songs resonate in multiple genres. But this is unique tour schedule; each type of show requires a different setlist. At her shows she can assume that the audience is familiar with her entire catalog; that is probably not the case at the P!nk concerts.
Here are the three iterations of Brandi Carlile in concert you could see on her summer tour this year.
