Sharon Van Etten
Opera House
Sydney, Australia
01 December 2022
If I was forced to find a common denominator across Sharon van Etten’s oeuvre, I would condense it down to the DNA being a seemingly earnest effort to inch towards her idiosyncratic and melancholically tinged version of the truth. At the very core, especially her stripped down songs seem to be a confession of her character paired with the immortal movement of her circumstances.
Given the aforementioned and having missed out on her incarnation as part of Sydney’s Vivid Festival in 2019, I was intrigued to experience her channelling her alchemy within the confines of a live environment.
Backed by a full band, the opening songs proved to be a fulminant tour de force and served as a backdrop against which Sharon van Etten confidently prowled the stage, leaned into the audience and actively engaged with the constituents of her superb musical backbone, thereby exuding exactly the captivating and engaging stage presence one would have hoped for to be the extension of her recordings.
Sydney Opera House’s Joan Sutherland Theatre has yet to disappoint in terms of adding a je-ne-sais-quoi quality to whoever is gracing its stage and it was no different tonight. Even the tamer, sleek acoustic parts of her performance sans rhythmic posturing did not feel like plateauing, as they allowed to focus on her emotional delivery of her delicate and vulnerable subject matter.
While the performance was deliberate, precise and professional, Sharon’s balanced set and full-bodied vocal recital did not lack soul and spirit and therefore formed a foundation for a sense of intimacy to reverberate.
A personal, nuanced and jubilant evening in majestic environment, the equally sweet and mesmerising authenticity of which helped to amplify Sharon communing with her audience.
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photo courtesy of Jordan Munns
