Must See Show: Sharon Van Etten @ Neptune

The shimmering sound of Sharon Van Etten’s Jagjaguwar debut album, Tramp, both defies and illuminates the unsteadiness of a life in flux. Throughout the 14 months of scattered recording sessions, Van Etten was without a home — crashing with friends and storing her possessions between varied locations. The only constant in Van Etten’s life during this time was spent in the garage studio of The National’s Aaron Dessner.

A two year journey brought her to that point of instability. Upon the release of epic (Ba Da Bing; 2010), Sharon Van Etten surprised the music world with a touching embrace. Having established herself as a reliable performer around New York, and coming off the release of her spartan first effort, Because I Was In Love (Language of Stone; 2009), Van Etten created a short album of diverse songs connected by a shared goal of expanded sound and her unmistakable voice. Fans quickly picked favorites, discovered their choices changing, then changing yet again. That is the magic of epic; the intricate, understated record covered so much ground within its 33 minutes, it required more than an initial half hour to absorb. Since epic’s release, she has opened the Pitchfork Music Festival, played The Hollywood Bowl with Neko Case and at Radio City Music Hall with The Antlers, sung on new records for Beirut and Ed Askew, and collaborated with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Megafaun on the Songs Of The South project.

Dessner, the guitarist of The National, heard Van Etten early on, Dessner covered “Love More” from epic in collaboration with Justin Vernon. Van Etten contacted Dessner, and almost immediately they formed plans for working together. Dessner offered both a location for Van Etten to record new songs, as well as the opinions of a wise producer.

One year later, and Van Etten unveils Tramp, an album showcasing an artist in full control of her powers.

Sharon Van Etten plays the Neptune Theatre this Tuesday, August 7th. Listen to ‘Serpents’ below. It’s a really great song from Van Etten’s latest record Tramp, and it’s also the first song that I had ever heard from her. It hooked me straight away and I’ve been exploring her catalogue ever since the first listen.

Sharon Van Etten
SPECIAL GUESTS:
Tennis, Lemolo
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Doors at 7:00pm
Show at 8:00pm

Buy tickets here.

sean.