On the Escaper Tour, Sarah Kinsley Guides Us Into Another World

Brooke Buckmir ’27 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

If you ever felt the need to go on a journey of self reflection, Sarah Kinsley provides you the map. She released her debut album Escaper on September 6th, 2024. Escaper is an album ruminating on love, heartbreak, and nostalgia. Nine days later, on September 15th, she embarked on the US leg of her Escaper Tour. Kinsley had opened for other artists before, most notably Mitski on her “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We” Tour. 

Now, Kinsley was the headliner, and on October 13th, she brought her tour to the Royale in Boston, and showed us why we should escape with her. 

The opener was Ha Vey, a singer based out of San Francisco. She played eight songs, including some unreleased tracks such as “Charmed” and “Feral Heart”. Even though there were some issues with her set—microphone difficulties and an ongoing illness included—the singer still shone on the stage, her spellbinding voice a highlight. Her graceful and tender presence readied the crowd for the headliner to come.

Kinsley opened the show with “Lovegod,” an apt choice, as the song started with a crescendo that got the crowd riled up with emotion. At its peak, Kinsley ran onto the stage, jumping right into singing. Accompanied by guitar/bass, drums, and synths, the instruments and Kinsley’s voice worked together to bring new life into her music. What also breathed life was Kinsley herself, her powerful voice working to both command the crowd’s attention, then nurture our explosive feelings. As she sang, she danced across the stage, moving as if her body was filled with a joy so powerful that it took control of her body. This joy was not possessed by Kinsley alone. As she sang her song “Last Time We Never Meet Again,” she pointed her microphone at the crowd to sing the line “I hope I hear your name / And I feel absolutely nothing.” That couldn’t be further from the truth at the Royale, where each member of the audience was feeling every emotion Kinsley sang.

This connection went beyond an emotional understanding between artist and fans. Kinsley would exchange with the crowd periodically, taking gifts and once holding hands with a devoted fan as they sang together. Multiple times throughout the show, she thanked the crowd for being there, showing a vulnerable sense of humility that matched the earnest lyrics she sang. She confessed to the crowd that the Royale, which holds a capacity around 1,500 people, was the biggest crowd she’d ever headlined for.

Along with her singing and dancing, Kinsley had other surprises for the crowd. She played the guitar for “The Giver” and played the piano for “Starling”. She covered “Dreams” by The Cranberries, doing more than justice to the Irish band. She gave the crowd the option to choose one out of three songs for her to sing, including “Lucky Drive”, an older song of hers she hadn’t sung at all for the Escaper Tour. The crowd, of course, chose “Lucky Drive”, and it was the right decision, as the song’s personal lyrics combined with Kinsley choosing Boston to be the first to hear this song live created an intimate moment between the singer and the crowd. She trusted us, and the crowd’s thunderous applause proved we trusted her tenfold.

The penultimate song was “The King”, her most popular at over 51 million streams on Spotify. The song’s lyrics about endless desire reflected the crowd, at an unreachable level of jubilation. The feeling of freedom continued for the final song, “Oh No Darling!”, another uptempo song about chasing after what you want. Kinsley never stopped moving across the stage, and as the song reached its end, she spun around and collapsed to the ground, as if the weight of the love and electric energy she had fostered was collapsing onto its maker.

In the hour she sang for, Kinsley created another world in the Royale, a world where one is free to sing their heart out and be their truest self. Kinsley was the beacon of that world, using her immense talent to guide us to freedom. One should escape with Kinsley at least once in their lives—they’ll find themselves in a new, shining light on the other side.