Headlining the Echo last night was the gorgeous singer-songwriter, Angel Olsen who with her pitch perfect voice, captivated fans from start-to-finish. Opening up her performance with one of her singles off her highly-praised album, Burn Your Fire For No Witness, was the track, “Unfucktheworld”. Her other bandmates, Emily Elhaj (bass), Josh Jaeger (drums) and Stewart Bronaugh (guitars) accompanied her for the tracks “Forgiven/Forgotten”, “Hi-Five”, “High & Wild”, and “Stars” to name a few. Which by the way, we’re pretty sure we heard an epic Stooges “I Wanna Be Your Dog” riff as the intro to “Forgiven/Forgotten.”
Olsen was all smiles throughout her performance, giving the audience cute grins with a casual “Hi” here-and-there. She kept her cool and charm, when her guitar strap unexpectedly came unhinged during the opening number of her performance. It was actually kind of cute. Ending the show with my favorite song off her album was “Iota”, a beautiful love ballad that when performed live by Olsen it leaves one in awe and admiration. The elongated song before “Iota” (can’t recall the track name) was insanely and beautifully cathartic. Our editor just about fainted from the relaxing trance that Olsen’s haunting vocals and echoing guitar put her in throughout this near 10-minute ballad.
It was an absolutely moving performance by Angel Olsen, near perfection. She reminds our photographer of a modern Leonard Cohen, with her velvety voice that brought the packed room to a complete silence; a rarity for the Echoplex.
Before Olsen hit the stage, the Irish guitarist, Cian Nugent (pronounced “KEE”an) opened up with the track “Grass Over My Head” off his 2012 EP, Grass Above My Head/My War Blues. Those unfamiliar with his music probably expected him to sing song-after-song, but were surprised and thrilled to hear the first half of his performance, as a dynamic acoustic performance. Despite that fact, Nugent managed to hold the audience’s attention throughout. Opening the beginning of the show was Paul Bergmann, dubbed the “Champion of dark retro folk”.
Check out the photo gallery below of Angel Olsen with supporting acts Cian Nugent and Paul Bergmann!
Words: Brissa Sanchez
Photography by Dominoe Farris-Gilbert
Angel Olsen
Cian Nugent
Paul Bergmann
For more photos of Angel Olsen, Cian Nugent and Paul Bergmann — click through the photo gallery below!
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Click here to read our album review for Angel Olsen’s Burn Your Fire For No Witness.
