peace sign

sharon van etten, the famous spiegeltent, sydney festival, 08/01/2013

on the hottest day of the year (including the year before) i saw sharon van etten and band play a mesmerising set in an air-conditioned tent. true to form the sydney festival audience is always unexpectedly mature-aged, about half-half with hipsters who know the music. and sold out pretty early. why is that? it always perplexes me. does sydney festival always have multipasses that these people pad out with acts that they don't know? do they pick based on the spiegeltent's well-deserved reputation for genius curation? are they really plugged into the indie singer-songwriter music scene? really, i would like to know. the lady who sat next to me started out turning to see her friends and fidgeting, only polite clapping after the first song and then not bothering to applaud again until near the end. at some points she clutched her ears due to volume.

overall i was suitably impressed with the performance. sharon van etten makes a point of staring straight out into the audience with her one revealed eye (the other behind bangs). the signature sound is rhythmic wall of sound and constant double-voiced harmonies along with not-happy melodies that develop sweetly into hooky turns and climaxes. normally i listen to the recordings at a softish calm background volume, but to hear  it all cranked up was pretty great. vocally at some points she has a neko case-ish valley of the winds sound and there is a soft husky smoothness retained up into the high notes and full volume - very interesting voice.

at the end my seat neighbour  reconvened with her friend and started raving about it. while trailing out i also overheard an older man remark that he liked one of the songs 'where you could actually hear the words'. who are these people?

8/10