There is no ball game at MGM Music Hall at Fenway on Sunday night, April 27th. The nostalgia game is strong in the shadow of historic Fenway Park though when Joss Stone and Melissa Etheridge took a room full of thousands of fans home with classics from each of their series of albums. The crowd was a mix of young/ish and older fans. MGM Music Hall at Fenway filled with eager fans on a cool spring night. I am there having spent my early university years listening to Melissa Etheridge and my early “adulting” years listening to a very young Joss Stone. Seeing them live on the same night was a giant wave of reminiscence that just about knocked me off my feet.
The concert opened with Joss Stone comfortably sitting on a pink swivel chair with her band members and back up singers perched on equally pink stools. Stone’s presence and demeanour was so warm and familial it felt as if you and her were sitting in a living room having a little chat until she broke into song. The sound that comes from within Joss Stone has always caught me off guard. Even though she is older and has had more life experience now, her deep rooted soulful blues sound is as genuine as it ever was despite the youth of her début years. She must just be an old soul.
What caught me most off guard was Stone’s pregnant belly once she stood up and started singing and dancing on her feet. (I spend lots of time listening to the music and very little catching up on the lives of artists so had no idea she was pregnant.) I imagined her literal inner child having a blast in there music, movement, and all. Joss Stone’s set had a nice mix of banter and songs including a medley of Midnight Train to Georgia, I Say a Little Prayer, and It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World and Let Me Breathe
When? When is the right time to give up on men? *sigh* I don’t know why I decided to do this song. If you are in your feels right now and that’s happening to you, maybe take a bathroom break… or a deep breath.
Joss Stone, MGM Music Hall before delving into the heartbreaking song Let Me Breathe
Melissa Etheridge was no less engaging and perfect in her performance. Etheridge is an icon to so many women (and folx of all genders from what I could see up by the stage) and yet she had a soft, gentle, “we’re in this together” energy about her. Etheridge had large pockets of the crowd losing their minds over every song and lyric dancing the night away (in whatever the rock-folk equivalent of a mosh pit is). Other fans sat in their chairs harmonizing to the songs (I had the joy of being seated in front of some pretty talented audience members.)
Etheridge played Watching You from her 1988 album for the first time on piano. Melissa Etheridge also talked about how she went to Berklee for a short period of time and reminisced about her time in Boston. There is something kind of special when artists, whether they’re bashing it (like Phoebe Bridgers did) or talking about their time, however short lived it may have been, mention their studies at Berklee because so many people have ties to our renowned music college. Boston is often overlooked as a music city, in the shadows of New York, so we take these ties pretty seriously.
… “At least go to college.” In 1979, I knew I had to go to a music college. No other music college would have me except Berklee, a place where I could major in guitar. I arrived here in Boston straight from Leavenworth, Kansas, and I walked into my first classroom, and you cats were so good…
I sang, I wrote, I went to Berklee for about a semester and a half, and I played at restaurants in Boston. It would have been nice to think that I was playing my music in some cool club, but I was singing Barry Manilow medleys at Ken’s Steakhouse across from the John Hancock Tower. But I was in the world; I was singing for people and making a living at music.
I called my parents and said, “I know you put a second mortgage on your house just to send me to college, but I’m gonna stop going now.” I pursued my dream. I went to Kansas City for a while and made a living there. Then I went to Los Angeles to see my dream of being a musician-a successful musician-go as far as it could. I wanted to write my songs and sing; and in the meantime, life was happening to me.
-Melissa Etheridge, Berklee Commencement Address May 13 2006
Come to My Window was no less powerful than the first time I heard it (probably on my college dorm neighbours’ casette tape or cd). Something in the room shifted as Etheridge belted out the chorus. People were transported to various places in time and space. Joss Stone came out to sing Brave and Crazy with Melissa Etheridge spinning and dancing as Etheridge went hard on the guitar.
The energy of the night built up with Bring Me Some Water and I’m The Only One leaving the crowd buzzing and bold enough to ask for more. For the encore, Etheridge closed out the night with Like the Way I Do. The night was a perfectly balanced evening of song and stories. Melissa Etheridge spoke about how she could see a prison from her childhood home and she vividly remembered when Johnny Cash came to town to perform at the prison. It was cloaked in an air of mystery and intrigue.
No one in Kansas City saw him [Johnny Cash]. I thought, Wow, prisons must be a place of fine entertainment.
Melissa Etheridge
Melissa Etheridge also mentioned performing in Topeka at a women’s prison in May of 2023. A two part documentary has been made that is on Paramount+ entitled, Melissa Etheridge I’m Not Broken I have not had a chance to watch it yet, but will let you know what I think when I do.
Joss Stone will be back in New England in October 2025 for her Less is More Tour stopping at The Ridgefield Playhouse in CT, Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, MA and The Park Theatre in Cranston RI. Tickets go on sale tomorrow, May 9th.
Melissa Etheridge will be back in New England in September for the Yes We Are Tour with the Indigo Girls. The tour stops at the BankNH Pavillion in Gilford, NH, Maine Savings Amphitheatre in Bangor, ME, The VETS in Providence, RI and Hartfrod Healthcare Amphitheater in Bridgeport, CT
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