Boxoffice Insider: Brandi Carlile Heads Home For New Tour Launch

June 11 marked the kickoff of the new concert tour by Brandi Carlile who will be on the road in North American cities this year in support of her critically acclaimed, seventh studio album, In These Silent Days, released last fall. With shows at amphitheaters, arenas and theaters along with festival appearances planned through October, the six-time Grammy Award winner chose her home state of Washington for the tour’s debut performance at Gorge Amphitheatre.

The concert is a return engagement for the Ravensdale, Washington, native who first appeared on stage at the outdoor venue supporting Dave Matthews Band in a three-show engagement in August 2014. But five years later, she returned as the headliner in a performance on her birthday, June 1, 2019, dubbed “Echoes Through the Canyon.” With guests Emmylou Harris and Neko Case on the bill, the concert that night drew 15,537 fans and logged a gross of $874,617.

Attendance topped 15,000 again on Aug. 14, 2021, when she returned to The Gorge for a concert originally scheduled for June 2020, planned as a second “Echoes Through the Canyon” event but rescheduled until the following year due to COVID-19. When she ultimately played the show last August, it was streamed live on Veeps, marking her first full-capacity hybrid event since the pandemic shutdown. The concert included sets by Sheryl Crow and Amythyst Kiah, but also featured a surprise appearance by the surviving members of Soundgarden who performed with her on two of the Seattle band’s hits.

This year’s June 11 concert at the amphitheater to open her “Beyond These Silent Days” tour will again be livestreamed on Veeps and will feature guest appearances by Sarah McLachlan, Lucius and Celisse.

In the years prior to the pandemic, Carlile’s box-office history included both headlining and support performances stretching back to 2002 when she first hit the Pollstar charts as an opener for Australian rocker Paul Kelly at The Crocodile in Seattle. Among her supporting runs were dates with Indigo Girls, Train, Maroon 5 and others, but her headlining stints began as early as 2006 when she played a string of clubs in January and February including a sellout at The Showbox in Seattle with a headcount of 1,148.

Her most recent tour prior to the shutdown was a 2019 trek that supported her album By the Way, I Forgive You, which was released the previous year and went on to win the Grammy for Best Americana Album. The tour racked up a sold-ticket count of 122,079 with $7.4 million in grosses from 27 concerts including the headlining event on her birthday at The Gorge.

Other shows on the tour included an appearance for 910 fans at The Neptune in Seattle just two days before The Gorge, and a Portland-area shed date at McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheater with three shows, Aug. 23-25, and attendance totaling 13,027.

But the most high-profile event on the 2019 tour was her first headlining performance at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sept. 14 that included an opening set by R&B legend Mavis Staples. The show also featured a brief set by The Highwomen, Carlile’s side project with Natalie Hemby, Amanda Shires and Maren Morris who is part of the group but was not present that evening. Attendance for the concert reached 12,653 with ticket revenue of $749,447. The New York arena is booked to host the finale of this year’s tour on Oct. 22 with Brittany Howard as show opener.