Armed with some outstanding new material, and having grown into a more confident and capable live performer than she was her previous local appearances, Sharon Van Etten enthralled a capacity crowd at the Black Cat on Saturday night, showcasing the vocal gifts and evocative songcraft that have made her one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters in independent music.
Backed by her three-piece touring band, Van Etten opened the hour-long set with three songs from her just-released third album, Tramp, starting with the simmering lead track, “Warsaw.” Displaying the expressive range of her voice during the plaintively confessional ballad, “Give Out,” Van Etten unleashed a more strident sound during “Serpents,” strumming propulsive chords on her Fender Jaguar over Zeke Hutchins’ staccato snare-drum fills, her words issuing a vulnerable, yet defiant tone.
Along with most of the songs from Tramp, Van Etten offered a spare rendition of the recent B-side, “Life of His Own” in addition to some choice selections from 2010’s Epic, including the rousing “Peace Signs.” Though lacking the star power of some of the musicians (Beirut’s Zach Condon, The Walkmen’s Matt Barrick, Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner) that performed on her latest record, the backing musicians provided strong, yet understated support, Hutchins anchoring Heather Woods Broderick’s lovely backing vocals and Doug Keith’s sterling contributions on guitar, bass, and harmonium. The group was in top form during the jazz-tinged “Magic Chords,” Van Etten adding Omnichord touches to Borderick’s moody keyboard lines and Hutchins’ insistent backbeat.
The show’s most powerful moments came at the end, starting with “All I Can,” a slow-building anthem that gradually swelled into a poignant crescendo, Van Etten giving her finest, most impassioned vocal performance of the evening. After the main set concluded with a noise-spiked version of “I’m Wrong,” the crowd’s spirited applause brought Van Etten back for the showstopping “Love More,” one of her best-known and best-loved compositions. Dedicating the song to her opening act, Shearwater, Van Etten played smouldering harmonium chords that might have stirred Wallace Stevens (or Barry Egan), while pushing her voice to a quietly intense emotive peak.
