After I had the privilege of enjoying the heavy beats and the amazing sounds of Caribou at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday night, I headed up to the Oxford Art Factory to see another Laneway act parading their wares in Sydney, 28 year old American folk artist Angel Olsen. The talented vocalist based in North Carolina has been releasing music for years, but made waves last year when her album Burn Your Fire For No Witness – her first with a full band – was released on iconic label Jagjaguwar.
But it was a track off her earlier album Halfway Home that opened the set, in the form of “Free”, a number that brings together folk/country vocals with surf rock laden riffs. This isn’t a sound that she’s exclusive to, however, and I daresay she’s an artist impossible to categorise easily. Tonight she played through the majority of her new record alongside a splattering of her back catalogue – not to mention a Richie Havens cover to close the night.
“Acrobat”, also off Halfway Home was an early highlight, showcasing Olsen’s often saultry vocals at their finest. And for the first half of the set, this is essentially what we were given: a display of Olsen’s fine vocals skills, intriguing songwriting and impressive compositions. But if you’d been expecting a set of powerful moments and energy to take home with you, this was not the show. Whether or not this is what we would usually find in her sets I’m not sure, but the music does come off quieter and more reserved live than on record.
This said, both in “High & Wild” and the following brilliance of “Forgiven / Forgotten”, we enjoyed some excellent instrumentals from Olsen and her band, adding a level of energy and excitement that seemed to be hard to find for the vast majority of the set. “Sweet Dreams” finished out a trio of incredible music on a high note. But it wasn’t long before Olsen went solo and, in singing songs about tragedy, brought back a sombre mood to the room, in “White Fire”. It was a spellbinding moment though; the audience giving the room a sort of silence I’d never before experienced in the venue.
Perhaps this wasn’t the best show to experience right after the energy of Caribou (you can call Olsen “the come down” in the context), but on the whole, this was a disappointing show. With limited crowd interaction and an intensity that seemed to be lost somewhere between the record and the stage, Angel Olsen proved herself to be better on record than in person, in spite of some impressive arrangements by her backing trio.
All the same, her impressive vocals as well as her demeanour were entrancing to say the least. And entranced we were: you could have heard a pin drop at times. But it’s not enough to make for a great show. With a lack of energy, there needs to be a strong repore (see the likes of Laura Marling – though to be fair, there were moments), and when a song is full of bravado and energy on record, that should follow through live. When it did, Olsen and her band shun brightly, but when it didn’t, it felt like it was missing something. And for such an impressive talent, that’s disappointing indeed.
Setlist:
Free
Hi-Five
Drunk and with Dreams
Stars
Lights Out
Acrobat
Tiniest Seed
High & Wild
Forgiven / Forgotten
Sweet Dreams
May as Well
White Fire (Solo)
Iota (Solo)
Encore:
I’m a Stranger Here (Richie Havens cover)
