Melissa Etheridge / Indigo Girls at Starlight Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-08-21)

KC Baby!  With a very special world-premiere performance to boot!

The Yes We Are Tour featuring Melissa Etheridge and Indigo Girls joining forces once again at over 30 summer stops, landed at Starlight Theatre on a clear summer weeknight (with nearby locusts chirping along all night), for what turned out to be a very memorable evening.

We caught Etheridge live here last summer in a slightly rain-shortened show on a bill with Jewel; but returning less than a year later, it was a notably different concert and is always special when Leavenworth KS native Etheridge returns for a hometown show.

Additionally, a portion of ticket sales from the tour benefits The Etheridge Foundation which supports causes like opioid addiction treatment and the First Peoples Fund, which champions Native American rights. The tour began last month at Red Rocks in Morrison, CO, and will wrap on October 12th in Phoenix.

For the Atlanta Grammy-winning folk duo of Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, this year actually marks forty years of playing under the Indigo Girls name, though they seem to be downplaying any anniversary, in favor of their well-received ‘business as usual’. And, as we gave it some thought, the various previous times we’ve seen the pair (Lilith Fairs, Taste of Chicago, MN Zoo) it’s usually unbearably warm, but not this night, as temps and a light breeze kept near ideal.

The pair and their crack band (all female except guitarist Jeff Fielder) began their eighty-five-minute set with “Faye Tucker” which goes back to 1999’s Come On Now Social album (we coincidentally just bought that CD used) and the band’s backdrop at first glance resembled an elementary school’s classroom. But upon closer inspection, it was filled with numerous references of social and political commentary that didn’t require any additional verbal explanations.

A central blackboard had a quote from their biggest song, but was also surrounded by a Bart Simpson-like repeated phrase, a US map included Canada, Greenland, and the ‘Gulf of America’, a model airliner featured the Qatar Air logo, a poster detailed ‘What to Do if ICE Comes’ and a list of after school activities showed that everything was canceled. Although a few posted online that it was a distraction, we personally loved an ‘Easter Egg’ backdrop to keep our attention towards the stage, as the set progressed.

An early set highlight was 2012’s “The Rock is My Foundation”, a song originally performed by Ray with Brandi Carlile, but on this night featured Ray and Fielder delivered with gospel-like ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ passion and expert playing.

Drummer TK Johnson took to vocals for their Gladys Knight-styled “Midnight Train to Georgia” which led into a swampy and extended powerful version of 1992’s “Chickenman” based on a reoccurring character from a book series.

Following Ray’s “Laramie” and hit single, “Galileo,” special guest Melissa Etheridge strode out to help finish the set on “Kid Fears” and their biggest hit, “Closer to Fine,” with Etheridge’s vocals taking on the Michael Stipe harmonies from the original, as well as singing the last verse solo (with the crowd singing the title). We’re huge fans of co-headliners guesting during each other’s sets, and this was no exception, seeing the three collaborate together on these songs.

After a set change into something fairly minimal (right and left raised platforms and a central raised space for the drum kit), lights dimmed and a frantically growing guitar strumming sound rang out as Grammy, Oscar and Juno Award-winning Melissa Etheridge and her three piece band (Joe Ayoub– bass; Eric Gardner – drums; Max Hart- guitar/keys) took to the stage to begin their ninety-minute-set with where things all began- 1988’s breakout initial single, “Bring Me Some Water”.

Like last summer, her latest release was the previous July’s I’m Not Broken (Live from Topeka Correctional Facility), but little did we know even newer music would soon be coming. “We’ll be playing everything tonight!” she said with glee, “You’ll be remembering things like all those poor choices we made, awww!” adding a laugh that revealed an immediate comfort of being back in the heartland.

Following a strong “If I Wanted To,” it was anything but a poor choice when she returned the favor and had the Indigo Girls come back to help sing “You Can Sing While I Drive” then waxed a little poetic about having to explain the 80’s to her kids, to preface “Don’t You Need” from her debut album.

“This is the time of the show when a play a little piano” she remarked, pointing to…well, a little black piano, explaining she taught herself to play at age thirteen (“…and I play like a thirteen-year-old”, she joked). Some memories of growing up in the area, going to Boston for school, and then unexpectedly returning to get a residency at a KC hotel lounge and tour the area, led into an emotional Springsteen-like “Nowhere to Go”, stripped to the song’s essence.

We noticed she wore a KC Current shirt under her jacket and one of the twelve string guitars she swapped out had a custom Current guitar strap and following a passionate “No Souvenirs”, she confessed that she’d “fallen in love with a certain local soccer team” to shrieks of delight, adding that Current Teal to the Chiefs Red we already knew she was a fan of.

Current staffers sprung out from backstage and tossed, hurled, and cannoned commemorative t-shirts into the crowd as Etheridge revealed she would not only be playing a brand-new song live for the very first time, but it would tie into the KC Current and be heard at matches. Cameramen also appeared and would be filming parts of the video as the new song was performed, she announced.

The new album will be called “Rise” (not out until next March) but the first single will release ‘soon’ she said, inspired by the strong women that make for good role models, and is called “Don’t You Want a Woman,” a succinct John Lee Hooker-esque chugging blues number that only had one run through (with a video filming, we expected maybe another take), which was fun, and we’ll be curious to see the end result.

The evening would wrap with three strong hits, “Come to My Window”, “I’m the Only One” (extended with Etheridge on harmonica as well as showing some fine guitar work), and with a promise to return again soon (likely next summer with the new album’s release), a tight but loose “Like the Way I Do,” capping one of the strongest performances we’ve seen from her (we can’t often say that about any artist playing for over thirty-five years).

If the question to pose to Melissa Etheridge and Indigo Girls is, are you still able to co-headline to deliver a fun, entertaining, and compelling show after four decades of experience each, the answer on this night was a resounding, “Yes We Are.”

(P.S.- those who can’t wait until next season or are simply hungering for an encore performance, can head west to Manhattan as the tour will hit the Little Apple on October 7^th, following a show at the Ryman in Nashville)

(click on any image to enlarge and to see in full)

MELISSA ETHERIDGE at Starlight Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-08-21)

MELISSA ETHERIDGE at Starlight Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-08-21)

MELISSA ETHERIDGE at Starlight Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-08-21)

MELISSA ETHERIDGE / INDIGO GIRLS at Starlight Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-08-21)

INDIGO GIRLS at Starlight Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-08-21)

INDIGO GIRLS at Starlight Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-08-21)