Melissa Etheridge Rises — and Rouses — the Crowd in a Solo Evening of Song

Rock legend Melissa Etheridge needs no introduction, and didn’t have one when she walked onto the Lobero stage last Friday night. Her stripped down, all acoustic performance, with no other musicians or backup onstage, was an uplifting evening of songs and storytelling, accompanied only by an enthusiastic crowd, many of whom were celebrating someone named Laura’s birthday.

She began the show with “Bring Me Some Water,” her 1988 (!) debut single — everyone still knows the words and joyfully danced and sang along with the raspy voiced rocker. At 65, her smoky vocals still sound terrific and her conversational ease onstage was infectious. 

Dipping back and forth with songs from her long career, much of the set focused on her new album, Rise, a 2026 release that includes a duet with Chris Stapleton. She performed that song, “The Other Side of Blue,” which they wrote together in Nashville. It’s a sad, moving tune about loss (a theme for much of the album) and she did it quite effectively à la Ed Sheeran, using a looper, and sharing that many of the new songs had never before been performed in public. Although they had never met before they worked together, Etheridge shared that her manager asked her for a wish list of collaborators and made it happen with Stapleton (watch their “Other Side of Blue” video here). “I still haven’t actually sung it with him,” laughed Etheridge.

“The whole album is a really special one,” said Etheridge. “Life happens, yes it does … but I’m constantly going forward and I love being alive!” That sentiment was echoed over and over again throughout the night, and in the moving lyrics of the first track on Rise, “Bein’ Alive” (video here): 

“I gathered the pain in a paper cup / Stood in the rain just to fill it up / Some days / Felt like anyway / Well, Job in the Bible got nothin’ on me / But the more that I cried, the more I could see / Some days / Felt like anyway.”

Of the older tunes, 1989’s “No Souvenirs” (with the chorus “But if you want me you can call me / In the night you know where I’ll be”) was a standOUT – get up out of your seat and standUP— as was the earwormy hit “Come to My Window” from 1993. 

But to me one of the best songs of the night, and a personal favorite, was Etheridge’s alone at the piano cover of Joan Armitrading’s “The Weakness in Me” (listen to Joan here and Melissa here).

Like that song, Etheridge has somehow managed to turn the hard stuff of her life (including the loss of a child) into something beautiful — and while a cynical part of me wonders what’s in her algorithm to make her feel so joyful and positive at this point in life — it was something special to be able to share it.