At the start of a show the lights will go down, the music swells, the curtain rises, the spotlight comes on. To kick-off her first-ever arena tour, Brandi Carlile did it her own way in Philadelphia. Standing in front of 21,000 fans, behind a curtain strumming her acoustic guitar, singing “Returning to Myself,” she became spotlighted by an orange-and-yellow Round. It’s a long way from her first show in Philly twenty years ago at the tiny 100-seat Tin Angel in Old City. “No one could have made me believe that we’re standing where we’re standing right now. It’s just wild.”

02.16.26