Off again to one of my favourite venues, the former Methodist chapel which is The Institute in Birmingham; good sound, decent views (unlike the nearby O2), beautiful décor in the main hall and a real ale pub (The Anchor Inn next to the bus station) within sight of the front door.
Support tonight comes from Marisa Anderson, who played guitar on 'Afraid of Nothing' the lead track on 'Are We There ' Sharon’s latest album. Marisa plays bluesy slide-guitar instrumentals, in her introductions to which she refers to memories of North Carolina, or swimming holes in Kentucky. Her playing is extremely accomplished but unfortunately she rapidly loses the audience who just coming in from a wet and cold Wednesday night in Birmingham (West Midlands, not Alabama) struggle to relate to blues from the Deep South. Our fault, not hers, and the audience's loss.
Everybody on stage is dressed in black, and peeking out through her black fringe is tonight’s main event, Sharon Van Etten, backed by a four piece band including Heather Woods Broderick (ex-Horse Feathers and Efterklang) on keyboards and harmonising vocals.
They open with the first two tracks 'Afraid Of Nothing' and 'Taking Chances' from the latest SVE album, the punctuation-deficient 'Are We There', and the first thing which strikes is how apparently effortlessly Sharon’s vocals glides across the vocal range those two songs demand. Most of tonight is from the heart-breaking songs of decaying and obsessive relationships on 'Are We There'. A new track 'I Don't Want To Let You Down' is more in the style of previous album 'Tramp', which according to Sharon didn't make the cut for 'Are We There' as it was too happy and her parents liked it . A solo request slot, the content of which is eventually decided by a shout from the audience of “ play whatever you want” consists of a new song Sharon has composed from unreleased lyrics from 1960's Greenwich village folk scene singer Karen Dalton.
A delicate and beautiful version of 'Our Love' featuring Sharon on Omnichord is somewhat destroyed by a couple next to me who decide that it's “their”song and engage in an inappropriate extended session of tongue wrestling; a quick look at the lyrics “ We're a half-mast flag in wind ...Still don't know what I've found in our love” and I fear for the future of their relationship. Fortunately their amorous advances are broken by a thunderous and powerful version of 'Your Love is Killing Me' “Break my legs so I won't walk to you, Cut my tongue so I can't talk to you, Burn my skin so I can't feel you, Stab my eyes so I can't see.”
The encore is two tracks from the more up tempo 'Tramp', 'Give Out' which Sharon describes as being about “scared shitless” of moving to New York and 'Serpents' which is close as we get to rocking out tonight with the full band. The album 'Are We There' has ended up in many Top Ten's of 2014 and this emotional and powerful performance from Sharon and the rest of the band proves how correct us voters were.
Alisdair Whyte
