Thursday night, April 24 - my first night back at The Earl since The Dum Dum Girls last March 20th.
Opening the relatively short, two-band show last night was Nashville's Promised Land Sound featuring a retro, early-70s brand of country rock.
Their set was pleasant enough and wisely short, because the full house was really there to hear Angel Olsen.
My friend Leslie compared Angel Olsen to "Sharon Van Etten's younger sister," and I can't really fault that description or come up with anything more apt. I would love to hear the two of them collaborate someday.
So, she played a very nice set of songs and kept the stage banter fairly deadpan and low key ("You seem like nice people, but I don't really know you."), and noted when the time was 11:11. Last night was the first of the second leg of her US tour (the first leg was February 18 through March 14, and she was in Europe March 23 through April 6). Despite the two-week break since getting back from the European circuit, she and the band already seemed a little road-weary - perhaps it was in anticipation of the long slog of shows coming up, or maybe it's just a part of her natural insouciance.
The Earl audience gave her the attention she was due, and it's already clear that this is going to be a very big year for Angel Olsen.
I've been listening to her all day (between teaching stints) and the more I hear, the more I like her. Some of the tracks on her album have harmonies, and I feel that would have added something to last night's show. She's with the same label as SvE so who knows...
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