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Review Tue Apr 12 2011
Review: Sharon Van Etten @ Lincoln Hall, 4/9/11
"I write moments," says Sharon Van Etten. Judging by her lyrics, Sharon Van Etten has had many heavy-hearted moments. On Saturday night at Lincoln Hall, she let the audience in on those moments as she sang the universal feelings of frustration, betrayal, obsession and the let down that comes with love that isn't, doesn't and just can't work. She does it all with minimal instrumentation and an emotively sweet folk sound.
Symbolically, Sharon Van Etten opened her Lincoln Hall set alone. There were no backup singers, no costumes, no displays of multi-colored lights, no smoke; just Sharon and her slow electric guitar strums. With which, she beautifully portrayed her feelings of anguish and frustration in "Consolation Prize" from the album Because I was in Love. The moral of the story was: no one wants to be a consolation prize. And Lincoln Hall stood silently letting the message fall over them.
Following two solitary songs, Sharon invited Doug Keith (bass) and Ben Lord (drums) on stage to pick up the tempo and shake Lincoln Hall out of its melancholy with the folk-rock "Peace Signs" off her recent release Epic. She later brought Laurel from opener Little Scream to help with the backing vocals for "Save Yourself." During which, Sharon's rich, warm soprano wrapped itself around the crowd while Sharon remained mostly expressionless. In fact, she remained mostly emotionless for the entire set. It's almost as if she'd already dealt with all the things behind her lyrics and can now lay them out for the audience to experience. Not to say, in any way, that there is a lack of emotion in her lyrics; quite the opposite. Songs like "Don't Do It" beautifully portrayed the frustration of a person wanting someone to do one thing when they're clearly just gonna do what they're gonna do. Her words impart frustration; Sharon just doesn't look like she's frustrated anymore.
Finishing the formal set, Sharon played "One Day" and then stepped behind an old school organ box for the upbeat, at least relatively speaking, song "Love More." "Love More" started wretchedly, with Sharon's soft yet warbling vocals metaphorically chained to a wall in a bedroom but, unlike some of her other songs, ends with hope in a true friendship that flipped her world right side up and "made [her] love more."
The band played a three song encore before the lights went out. Opening for Sharon Van Etten was Chicago's own dreamy indie-pop band In Tall Buildings and amazing new-folk singer-songwriter Little Scream. The trio of bands made for an introspective evening of folky slash indie pop music.
Davis / April 12, 2011 10:27 AM
Are you sure were actually at that show? The songs were heavy, but Sharon's delivery was far from emotionless!
Also she didn't play an REM cover it was a Fine Young Cannibals cover.