Angel Olsen Live at the Echoplex, LA

Having been totally transfixed by Angel Olsen's breathtaking sophomore album "Burn Your Fire For No Witness" the opportunity to catch this talented artist when she played LA was too hard to resist...

By the time Angel Olsen hits the stage around 11pm (which strikes me as just a tad late for an "all ages" show - but then again, what do I know?), the Echoplex is looking reasonably full, with the crowd packed shoulder to shoulder in a scrum that extends way past the mixing booth.

Angel Olsen wows the Echoplex

Armed with only a guitar and to be honest looking slightly nervous, she launches straight into the opener of "Burn Your Fire For No Witness" - (her "breakout" album, - as they are prone to say here whenever an artist strays from whatever sandbox the media have decided to place them in) - "Unfucktheworld", informing those of us who didn't already know that here is an artist with the voice, range and delivery that is well worth crawling over broken glass for... 

I mentioned that she looked nervy, in hindsight it's easy to confuse nerves with the minimalist patter between the songs - as if the songs, which tell their own stories, need no introduction. Truth was she was unfazed - even when her guitar and strap parted company at the end of the song - and delightfully charming all evening.

Joined on-stage by her tight backing band (Josh on drums, Emily on bass and Stuart adding another layer of guitar), she launches into one of my favourites off of the new album, the very Roy Orbison-inspired, "High five" - there's that same tell-tale tremolo and vocal delivery off of the album all captured live.
 

As expected, the set is pretty heavily slanted to showcasing "Burn Your Fire For No Witness", but we're treated to a couple of songs from her debut album, 2012's "Half Way Home" ("Free" and "Tiniest seed") and "Drunk with dreams" from "Strange Cacti" - which allows me another chance to reflect upon her earlier material - (I touched on my conundrum during my recent review). It's the first time I'd heard this last track (although I've been giving the whole back-catalogue the Spotify treatment today) and what can I say but "Wow! Gorgeous..."

Meanwhile, "High & wild" and "Stars" are both given the full-on rock treatment with a thumping reverbed guitar ending, Angel's voice is almost crying with pent-up fury... there's a deliberately(?) blown jam as the band launch into "Forgiven/Forgotten", stripped of the album's fuzzed and reverbed guitar, replaced here by a more traditional rock percussion accompaniment - all three songs ensure the crowd's rapt attention.

But ultimately it's when Angel slows it down a notch and her voice takes centre-stage,  projected to the fore that you become aware of the amazing dexterity she posses and reinforces the autobiographical nature of her lyrics... "Windows", for instance sounds absolutely breathtaking live - even more so than on the album.

However, for me the highlight of the entire set was "White fire"... As the band depart, leaving Angel solo on the stage there's almost an apology; "Got a few more - what audacity" she half-jokes, before launching into the most beautiful, mesmerising and haunting seven-odd minutes I'm likely to experience at a gig this year... This is a song that demands undivided attention... Unfortunately 7 minutes seems to have been beyond the attention span of a number in the crowd - only a minority fortunately - who decided that we wanted to hear their idle chatter (not helped it has to be said by the noise emanating from the stage-side bar) - who were probably here because they felt they "needed to..." Then again, perhaps it's just an attention deficit?  
 
Luckily, none of this put her off and we were treated to a solo rendition of the lilting "Iota" before being sent on our way... This was a totally spell-binding, commanding performance that left me entranced... shame some preferred their own voice to Angel's...