Live music review: Sharon Van Etten
The break-up song is the oldest, saddest cliche in rock and roll. So it is extraordinary with how much haunted vitality Sharon Van Etten imbues her tales of love, loss and romantic near-misses.
When she croons about commitment issues and emotional betrayal, it is as if she was the first person to ever have had their heart broken.
Her keening music made for surprisingly agreeable company at Vicar Street. It probably helped that, with Van Etten’s father and brother flying in from New Jersey to attend, the 34-year-old was in a buoyant mood.
However, there was also a sense that, fresh from the blizzard of five-star reviews that attended last year’s Are We There, the singer was on a victory lap of sorts — she has spoken of wishing to put her career on the back burner to start a family and, thus, is perhaps determined to bask in the acclaim while it lasts.
Theoretically, songs such ‘Afraid Of Nothing’ and ‘Taking Chances’ ought to be a hard-sell.
Slow-building, clotted with miserablism, they make few concessions — Van Etten was in a bad place writing them and does not soften her blows.
However, the intensity is paired with considerable technical eloquence — there are choruses and frantic wig-outs, every coo and cry lent extra depth by Van Etten’s deliciously smoky vocals.
To claim she was a blues singer would be pushing the point somewhat: nonetheless, Van Etten conveys emotional devastation with an acuity rare in contemporary rock (her only equal perhaps is Laura Marling).
Here, she was assisted by a six-piece band charged with fleshing out the baroque undertones, so that confessional ballads were reworked into towering, gothic edifices.
A journey to the dark side has rarely felt as satisfying or illuminating.
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