Saturday night proved to be a toughie when it came to choosing which show to go to, given the options of Mercy Lounge’s 8th anniversary soiree, Chris Pureka at The Basement, or Matthew Perryman Jones. In the end, I opted to go see the homecoming of indie folk singer/songwriter, Sharon Van Etten. She used to live in nearby Murfreesboro before she moved to Brooklyn to begin performing her material, and eventually record two albums, so there was quite the crowd that was eager to see her finally perform in Nashville again.
I arrived to catch the very end of Jasmin Kaset’s set, which was a bummer because I’ve heard such good things about her recently, but have yet to see a full live performance. Her voice can best be described as a more blessed descendant of Deb Talan’s (lead singer of The Weepies), put into a similar musical context but with some electronic and indie-pop influences, and a greater use of harmonies. Songs like “Food,” and “Window Shopping,” demonstrate Kaset’s ability to create catchy folk/pop songs that transform into deeply layered valleys of sound. She recently released an album, “Hell and Half of Jordan,” which can be listened to and purchased here.
Next was Julianna Barwick, who has been opening for Sharon on the tour, and added some nice variety to the lineup, but was, unfortunately, ill-suited for the racket that was created at the 5 Spot. I couldn’t really hear the majority of her set, which consisted of her doing a lot of potentially cool tricks with looping her voice, but I think it was probably supposed to sound like a girlier, less-experimental Sigur Ros or Animal Collective. Collectively, the drunkies on Saturday night could’ve probably just done with one opener, and seemed more than ready for Sharon to perform by the time she actually took the stage. She probably only played 7 or 8 tunes, and they were mostly more “up-tempo” ones from her most recent album, “Epic”–up-tempo at least for Sharon Van Etten, that is. Even in a live setting, she sounded just like she does in recordings: effortlessly emitting her unusual lines with a lilting breathlessness that makes me think of her as having perfected the art of doing tasteful runs in an indie capacity, (which is something that sets her apart from comparable artists); these runs were also nicely complemented by the band.
Thank goodness she brought that harmonium along with her too, because it created the perfect foundation for her melodies to meander over. She made use of it on the especially gorgeous closer, “Love More,” which was another fine example of her atypically-poetic lyrical tendencies. Van Etten’s music managed to offer the same glimpses of beauty that her recordings have, and Nashville is happy to claim her as a past resident–even though she technically lived in Murfreesboro. Good luck to her on the rest of her tour.–Erin Manning