Sharon Van Etten and Kyp Malone at Mercury Lounge!

Enough with food, it’s time to go back to music, particularly my insatiable pursuit of new music—even just for more music.  I always have cds on hold at the library. I read up on new bands and new albums by established artists.  And as I keep an ear out for the new and up-and-coming, I reach back toward everything I’ve missed—80s pop culture, Led Zeppelin, revered bluesmen—in order to understand how everything in music (or culture and art in general) is connected and influenced by what came before.  But as for the present, my latest source for new music is NPR Music.  Their website features an archive of concert recordings, a song of the day, music articles, All Songs Considered podcasts, and their First Listen series. 

So, I listened to the ASC Fall Preview and heard for the first time a female singer named Sharon Van Etten.  I jotted her name down in my notebook, along with a few other bands I liked, just in case I ran across any albums, videos, or upcoming concerts. And who should I read about in the Village Voice the next week?  Sharon Van Etten.  And who would be doing a late concert the following Saturday night with Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio (one of my favorite bands)?  Again, SVE. 

Mercury Lounge was dark when I entered before Kyp Malone’s 11pm set.  I slipped through the narrow bar to the small room at the back, only just beginning to fill.  But as it did, and as Kyp himself set up his gear, the growing tension and energy of the tight crowd was palpable.  The stage was right there, and the solo performer was right there: a feeling of exposure for them, intimacy for us.  Playing an electric resonator guitar, Kyp kept his songs quiet—initially.   But when he actually strummed, the resonator sent out chilling reverberations.  Without his usual backing band, The Rain Machine, Kyp utilized this quiet/loud dynamic—or “cheap dramatics” as he called it.  Though his songs were mostly long and languid, his delivery was precise and his pacing deliberate.  And then he’d kick it in: angry, screaming verses pouring from his beard, angry, screaming chords jolting the room.  Humor and his comfort with audiences appeared in his between-song banter—and he played up the coming appearance of his good friend, Sharon Van Etten.  He frequently checked his watch, gauging how many songs he could fit in before she preformed—and intimated to us the dilemma of choosing songs to play from the deep catalogue of his mind.  And I truly believe that he could have played for another two or three hours that night; perhaps the effort of doing so alone would have been too much, but I do not doubt that he possessed that many songs and could have held our interest over the course of a long set.  Unfortunately, an encore was not an option that night, even though I definitely wanted to hear more from Mr. Malone. 
 
However, as soon as Sharon Van Etten stepped on stage, I forgot who that guy with all the hair even was (until he stood in front of me, that is.)  Smiling, she was beautiful up in those lights, dwarfed by an immaculate red guitar.  And then she sang.  And I smiled.  And my stomach flipped.  I think this is called “swooning”—a condition with which I’m not frequently afflicted.  Well, needless to say, I was hooked, infatuated even, for the rest of the night.  Her voice, echo-y and amplified, was … ethereal?  No, too light.  It was more solid and striking than that, betraying nothing of the nerves she exhibited when not performing.  Although she was releasing her second album, and had gigged with her band for at least a month of this tour, Sharon was giddy when introducing them.  She exhibited sincere wonderment as she marveled the audience, and an endearing nervousness when addressing her on-stage awkwardness.  But it was all about her songs—her voice, yes, but also the pain and beauty in her lyrics. And with family and friends amongst an adopted-hometown crowd, Sharon Van Etten’s music embraced us and we embraced her back.
 
So, I bought her new album, Epic, that night and have been listening to it frequently over the last week.  To see pictures from the show, check out Brooklyn Vegan.  Check out YouTube for some live videos of both Kyp Malone and Sharon Van Etten.  They also have websites.  And here’s the profile from the Village Voice, if you want to know the backstory on SVE.  Also! If you’re in the New York area, Sharon Van Etten will be performing at Bruar Falls in Williamsburg on Wednesday at 6pm.  Be there, for the good of your soul.  I will.