Pitch Perfect: Angel Olsen live in London

The first was entirely expected. Having released the album of her career with MY WOMAN, Olsen delivered a stunning set that combined her masterful songwriting with her incredible voice. The second was rather less anticipated, but equally welcome. The audience were hushed, with no chatter during or between the songs. Olsen’s performance was so compelling it demanded and received a suitably reverent awe.

The last time I saw Olsen live was just over two years ago and a mere 200 yards down the road. Whilst she and her band played beautifully that night, the chatter of crowd made the evening tense at points, prompting Olsen to deliver a sharp one-liner to a heckler.

As the house-lights go down an ambient mix of “Intern” from MY WOMAN booms over the PA, her five piece-band, featuring two guitarists, drums, bass and keyboards walk on wearing matching suit, looking like Buddy Holly’s Crickets.

When Olsen walks on she’s instantly greeted with a wolf-whistle, to which she returns one of her infamous stares, yet if that suggested a fractious evening was to come, it’s anything but. The audience are on their best behaviour and Olsen seems like a performer transformed, confident and chatty. Opening with “Never Be Mine”, her onstage demeanour has noticeably blossomed into that of a consummate, but highly individual performer.

Before “Shut Up Kiss Me” Olsen speaks to the audience for the first time, uttering the unfinished sentence “I’d like to tell you something, but first…” and starts the chords and vocals of her most playful song. The band pause for Olsen to hold the line “We could make this all disappear” and you’re struck by how big the songs are.

She slows things down with the smoky blues of “Lights Out” from 2014s Burn Your Fire for No Witness, adding a five second pause before the chorus, as if to check if the audience are behaving themselves, which they are. It’s so quiet I feel guilty at the sound of my pen writing on my notebook.

“Heart Shaped Face” from MY WOMAN is prefaced by easy banter with the audience. Olsen jokingly says “I love you” to one of the questions thrown at her. When she repeats its opening line “I’ve seen you, changing…” it sounds so devotional you feel as if you’re in a church, rather than an art-deco building in North London. Whilst the set focusses on MY WOMAN, older songs such as “Acrobat” from Halfway Home slot in perfectly and she also finds time to play two unreleased songs, "Fly" and "Special”, which are formidable additions to her mighty songbook.

Before “Sister” Olsen tells the audience that she likes them dancing to her songs, which draws a laugh, yet when the song starts up it wraps the room in solemnity. And her voice is something else, forget all the ‘modern day Patsy Cline’ comparisons; which I was guilty of making the last time I saw her play, Olsen is her own artist, who sounds unmistakably like no one but herself. She swaps beautiful harmonies with backing vocalist Heather McEntire, before the four minute coda of the line “All of my life I thought had changed” makes its wonderful refrain.

For the encore Olsen plays two songs on the keyboard. Standing sideways to the audience they play “Intern” as a three piece, with just guitar, Olsen and McEntire on keyboards. For the finale, “Woman” the whole band joins the fray and when Olsen hits one of the years’ finest lines “I dare you to understand what makes me a woman” it's stunningly controlled.

As well as two wonderful things happening tonight, there are a further two certainties from this point on. Firstly, this is the last time Olsen will play a show in such an intimate venue in London - next up is The Roundhouse in May - and secondly, MY WOMAN sounds even better live than it does on record. Tonight Olsen was pitch perfect.

Setlist:

Never Be Mine Hi-Five Shut Up Kiss MeLights Out
Heart Shaped Face
Sister
Those Were the Days
Fly
Acrobat
Special
Not Gonna Kill You
Sweet Dreams
Forgiven/Forgotten
Give It Up

---Encore---

Intern
Woman