Sharon Van Etten The Kings Arms

Earlier in the evening she brought TV3’s John Campbell to tears and later on Brooklyn’s Sharon Van Etten managed to keep a full house at Auckland’s Kings Arms quiet and attentive for 90 minutes as she performed her deeply intimate songs.

Van Etten’s surprise appearance on Campbell Live reduced the host to tears. Apparently JC is a huge fan, but was unable to attend the show, so Campbell Live producers arranged for Sharon to play a song for the emotionally overcome host. The segment has been getting plenty of media coverage, even a mention in hipster music blog Pitchfork. You can watch it here.

I’m happy to report that John Campbell was able to witness at least part of Sharon Van Etten’s mesmerizing performance as he was standing right next to me for part of the show. He did look to be keeping his emotions to himself.

It turned out to be quite a special evening even before the headliner took the stage.

Robert Scott, of The Clean and The Bats and various solo ventures, was the opening act. It seems Sharon is a longtime Robert Scott fan…check out her 13^th Floor interview here…and his appearance was a perfect fit.

Both Van Etten and Scott are artists more concerned with feeling than technical perfection. Both of them showed their imperfections…Sharon fluffed a few lyrics, Robert played and sang a few off notes…but both communicated beautifully with their audience. Hey, if you want a tightly choreographed, soulless show, go see Beyoncé.

The Kings Arms audience anticipated the fine set Scott was about to turn in and showed up good and early.

Scott delivered, playing solo acoustic versions of Bats and Clean tunes along with plenty of songs from his latest solo album, The Green House.

Halfway through his set Scott introduced Hollie Fullbrook, aka Tiny Ruins, who added her ethereal vocals to the mix along with some guitar playing. Holly is featured on Robert’s album and the two sounded comfortable together, finishing with a cover of John Cale’s Andalucía from his Paris 1919 album.

A few minutes after Robert and Holly left the stage, Sharon Van Etten was ready to go, accompanied by keyboard player and vocalist Heather Woods Broderick.

A self-confessed introvert, Sharon struggled a bit at the beginning to come up with some clever banter, but her awkward attempt only endeared her to her fans even more.

Sharon stood on the left side of the stage, playing an electric guitar while Heather was seated at a keyboard on the right. The two of them watched each other intently as they sang close harmonies during set opener, Afraid Of Nothing, from Van Etten’s most recent album, Are We There.

At first it seems the Sharon has a fragile, birdlike voice, but she quickly showed that there was plenty of power at her disposal as her clear, pure soprano cut through the Kings Arms. I was reminded of folk singer Judy Collins at times.

Sharon eventually became comfortable talking to the audience, riffing at length about being called “Shazza” in England and New Zealand or talking about how much she and Heather enjoy hugs.

Musically, her songs are sparse, emotional beings that demand attention.

During the set, Sharon and Heather switched places, with Sharon playing keys on I Love You But I’m Lost.

A few new tunes were introduced. Remembering Mountains features lyrics by Karen Dalton, the American folk singer who died in 1993. Sharon played this one on her own, briefly forgetting the lyrics, but rebounding well.

On her guitar playing she quipped, “I don’t play barre chords very well, not that you want to hear about that right now”.

They was a slight technical issue with Heather’s keyboard late in the set that caused a short delay, Sharon being forced to come up with more banter…telling us again how thrilled she is to be in New Zealand and what a fan she is of Robert Scott and Tiny Ruins.

Van Etten saved another new song for the end. She described the as yet unnamed tune as an attempt to write a happy song. She noted that she was in love and missed someone who, “was not an asshole”.

Her romantic bliss hasn’t affected her music much…the song sounded as wonderfully miserable as all the others.

The set closed with Tell Me, a song from the Tramp sessions and the encore was Give Out, a tune also from Tramp. There was one more, brief flub with the lyric, proving only that perfection comes in more ways than one.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Ren Kirk:

 

Sharon Van Etten set list:

1. Afraid Of Nothing
2. Consolation Prize
3. Life Of Her Own
4. Tornado
5. For You
6. Remembering Mountains
7. Joke Or A Lie
8. I Love You But I’m Lost
9. Keep
10. Tarifa
11. I Always Fall Apart
12. I Know
13. New Song (Untitled)
14. Tell Me
15. Give Out

Robert Scott set list:

1. Messages
2. Too Early
3. It’s Not The Same
4. That’s What I Heard
5. The Wick Effect
6. Silence Or Something Else
7. Right From Wrong
8. Lazy Boy
9. Lava
10. Little Bird
11. Now IN Your Hands
12. Lights Are Low
13. Andalucía

Songs 8-13 with Hollie Fullbrook