Sharon Van Etten

Fountain Lawn Stage, Bumbershoot. I saw Ms. Van Etten last year when she opened at The Earl for Jose Gonzales and his band Junip, and her set today sounded even better, even if she did play mostly the same songs (they were the very songs we wanted to hear, however). A second interesting thing also happened, though: her casual, offhand remarks were almost the same as a year ago, suggesting that they weren't all that spontaneous after all. Last year, she singled me out personally from the crowd and said she wanted to record my shouts of "You're great!," so she could play it back anytime she felt down. Tonight, she said the same thing about the audience as a whole, but worse, someone called back, "That's what we do with your music," which is more or less what I said in return last year. So much for the audience's spontaneity.

Anyway, SVE played a great set of music while facing the Space Needle in lovely Seattle during dusk at Bumbershoot, and we all shared a moment.