Skip to main content

Sharon Van Etten

Leith Theatre
Four stars

When Sharon Van Etten plays a solo version of Sunshine on Leith mid-way through a set that mixes up the martial electronica of her recent Remind Me Tomorrow album with bar-room indie-rock confessionals, The Proclaimers’ anthemic lament prompts a mixture of noisy surprise, sing-a-long rapture and at least one grown man shedding a tear.

Van Etten says that when she first heard the song growing up in New Jersey, it changed her life. Given the raw truth of pretty much everything she’s ever sung, there’s no reason to disbelieve this most honest of artists. She’d entered in darkness, her voice at odds with the brooding fizz of the opening Jupiter 4 and the industrial sturm und drang of Comeback Kid and No One’s Easy to Love. Only when she strapped on a red guitar for One Day from her 2010 Epic album could you hear her city cow-girl roots.

Epic is a title which seemed to predict where Van Etten is at now. A slight but powerful presence, Van Etten has come through the mill enough to buy birthday cake for her tour manager in Mimi’s Bakehouse and perform with an all-embracing sense of self-possessed joy. This is driven by Devin Hoff’s meaty bass, the thwack of Jorge Balbi’s drums and twin synths of Charley Damski and Heather Woods Broderick. Van Etten is bathed in blue light for the slow drawl of Tarifa, shares lovely harmonies with Broderick on All I Can and claws the air inbetween rippling her other hand through mini tubular bells during Memorial Day.

“As angry as we sound, we are so happy,” says Van Etten after Broderick’s FX wigout on Malibu segues into the thunder of Hands prior to that Proclaimers moment. The Springsteenesque wisdom and experience of Seventeen, the tortured self-awareness of Every Time the Sun Comes Up and the simple plea of Stay all seem to belie Van Etten’s words. If they sound like purging, the beautiful intimacy of I Told You Everything ends the night with pure heart and soul redemption.

The Herald, August 22nd 2019

ends


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Myra Mcfadyen - An Obituary

Myra McFadyen – Actress   Born January 12th 1956; died October 18th 2024   Myra McFadyen, who has died aged 68, was an actress who brought a mercurial mix of lightness and depth to her work on stage and screen. Playwright and artistic director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, David Greig, called McFadyen “an utterly transformative, shamanic actor who could change a room and command an audience with a blink”. Citizens’ Theatre artistic director Dominic Hill described McFadyen’s portrayal of Puck in his 2019 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London as “funny, mischievous and ultimately heartbreaking.”   For many, McFadyen will be most recognisable from Mamma Mia!, the smash hit musical based around ABBA songs. McFadyen spent two years on the West End in Phyllida Lloyd’s original 1999 stage production, and was in both film offshoots. Other big screen turns included Rob Roy (1995) and Our Ladies (2019), both directed by Mi...
1 comment
Read more

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Billy Elliot The Musical

Edinburgh Playhouse Five stars A big National Coal Board sign looms large at the opening of Lee Hall and Elton John's decade-old musical stage version of Hall and director Stephen Daldry's hit turn of the century film. In a tale of one little boy's liberation as a dancer against the backdrop of the 1980s miners strike, however, the Durham Miners banner and the 'Save Our Community' sash held aloft matter more. It is this call to arms that forms the heart of Daldry's production, as Billy becomes a potty-mouthed beacon of hope in a situation where picket line, thin blue line and chorus line rub uneasily up against each other. Given such a context, there is bound to be some pretty grown-up stuff going on here, be it the institutionalised homophobia in Billy's village, the class war going on within it, or Billy's grieving for his dead mother that drives his every move. And, as so magnificently choreographed by Peter Darling, what moves they are. Watch...
Post a Comment
Read more