Things kicked up a notch, however, when she prepared to play her new single "Brave" off of her forthcoming album, The Blessed Unrest.

"This is a big week for the gay rights movement," Bareilles mused to a cheering audience, as a gay pride flag was waved feverishly at the front of the crowd. "I wrote this song when one of my best friends was struggling to come out. And this song can be applied to anything, but to me, it's about gay rights."

The uptempo pop track, features lyrics about embracing the truth in your life head-on, and despite the fact that it's her newest single, the crowd sang along with as much precision as they had with her older cuts.

One thing that makes Bareilles so fascinating to watch live is that she's stuck somewhere between a pop singer and a rock star. Sure, she has the gorgeous face and a voice to boot, but she's not out to make big bucks off of it, either. Instead, she seems to get more joy out her fans singing along with her to each song.

Incredibly enough, Bareilles is not regarded as one of the great voices of her generation. Perhaps it's because she's not strapping on candy-inspired mini-dresses or dying her hair pastel colors to match the trends of radio divas like Christina Aguilera, Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry.

But the truth is, when you strip everything away, Bareilles can really dig deep and really belt it out better than most. The fact that she's not expecting or even asking for the recognition she deserves is another story.

Though Bareilles only got an hour to perform, her fans know something the rest of the world doesn't -- she's the kind of talent you stick around for.

After she and her band exited the stage at the end of their set, it was apparent that the show was over. This wasn't a ploy to get fans to scream encore - the venue lights were coming on and security was starting to move around the way they do post-show. Still, the crowd kept at it, and eventually, Bareilles came back out.

"Holy shit, I did not expect that!" she said. "I don't even know what to play."

After taking a moment to gather her thoughts, she finally settled on a very-stripped down, very elegant version of Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" before waving one last time and disappearing backstage.

The Crowd: A decent mixture of men and women, and everyone was in good spirits. There were a lot of couples, quite a few post-Pride attendees and a lot of women who looked like they ditched the husband and kids for girl's night out.

Personal Bias: Sara Bareilles is the kind of pop I can get behind. She's smart, she's got style and a potty mouth, and she's killer live.

Seen In the Crowd: We usually report what we hear, not see, but hopefully we can make an exception. Throughout majority of the show, most of the people in my general vicinity were splitting their focus between Bareilles and a trio that one girl described as "a full-blown threesome." It would have been boring had one of the girls not gotten on the guy's shoulders, thus prompting the other girl to put her face and hands up the front of the hoisted girl's skirt.

Random Notebook Dump: Sara Bareilles is goofy and loveable. If she's anything in daily life as the person she seems onstage, she's probably the best friend every girl wishes she could have.

SET LIST

Uncharted Gonna Get Over You Love Song Many The Miles (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay Gravity Basket Case You Belong To Me/Let The Rain Brave King of Anything

ENCORE

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road