Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen & Julien Baker deliver all the feels at LA’s Greek Theatre on ‘The Wild Hearts Tour’

The Wild Hearts Tour - Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen & Julien Baker


Sharon Van Etten (center), Angel Olsen (left) & Julien Baker (right)

By Steph Port //

Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen & Julien Baker with Quinn Christopherson //
Greek Theatre – Los Angeles
July 28th, 2022 //

It was a beautiful summer night in LA last Thursday as “The Wild Hearts Tour” featuring the powerhouse indie trio of Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen and Julien Baker rolled into the Greek Theatre for the first of two much-anticipated dates. The show left us with all the feels, completely in awe of all three artists, and ultimately not wanting it to end.

After cheekily walking onstage to Manfred Mann’s “Quinn the Eskimo”, Alaskan-born singer-songwriter Quinn Christopherson opened the evening with a set of his dreamy, minimalist pop songs from across his catalog of EPs and singles.

Julien Baker


Julien Baker

Baker then took the stage and opened with an old favorite in “Sprained Ankle” before unveiling mostly newer songs from last year’s Little Oblivions as well as a few from 2017’s Turn Out the Lights. Baker’s powerful vocals and raw, vulnerable lyrics had us glued to her visage and utterly impressed by the 26-year-old’s skilled, energetic guitar playing the entire way.

The sun went down just in time for Angel Olsen to serve us a dose of her quintessential moody-musical medicine. Joined by a large, colorful band that included a string section, Olsen’s performance contained a slew of the brooding ballads that we love her for, many from her new album Big Time that came out in June and of course her breakout hit “Shut Up Kiss Me” off 2016’s My Woman. Although her songs bend toward the emotional, Olsen’s stage banter featured lighthearted jokes and jovial crowd interactions that only endeared us to her more.

Angel Olsen


Angel Olsen

Finally, the incredible Sharon Van Etten brought an energy and focus that had us fully entranced and powerless to her presence. Her signature, edgy brand of rock was on full display as she and her band traversed across her deep discography, including tracks off her sixth LP We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong the New Jersey native unleashed back in May. Playing in her new hometown of LA since she moved cross country in 2019, Van Etten spoke to the crowd about the origins of her latest material after writing and recording as a new mother in her home studio during the COVID-19 pandemic. We listened as she humbly opened up her heart to share her experience with us.

Olsen joined Van Etten onstage to close out the evening with a crowd-pleasing rendition of their popular 2021 duet “Like I Used To” that was produced by Grammy winner John Congleton. As the tote bag being sold at the merch stand proclaimed, “I went to ‘The Wild Hearts Tour’ and all I got was emotional.” While that’s certainly true, in reality we ended up getting much, much more.

Sharon Van Etten


Sharon Van Etten

QUINN CHRISTOPHERSON

Setlist:
Bubblegum
Just Like Céline
Evelene
Loaded Gun
2005
(Unknown)
Thanks

JULIEN BAKER

Setlist:
Sprained Ankle
Bloodshot
Tokyo
Shadowboxing
Favor
Relative Fiction
Heatwave
Ringside
Faith Healer
Hardline
Ziptie

ANGEL OLSEN

Setlist:
Dream Thing
Big Time
Ghost On
Right Now
Shut Up Kiss Me
Sister
Go Home
Through the Fires
All Mirrors
All the Good Times
Chance

SHARON VAN ETTEN

Setlist:
Headspace
Comeback Kid
No One’s Easy to Love
Anything
Come Back
Hands
Every Time the Sun Comes Up
All I Can
Darkish
Born
Mistakes
Seventeen

Encore:
Like I Used To (with Angel Olsen)

Monterey Pop 50 pays tribute to the Summer of Love & the festival that started it all

Monterey Pop International Festival 50By Steph Port //

Monterey International Pop Festival 50 //
Monterey County Fairgrounds – Monterey, CA
June 16th-18th, 2017 //

Last weekend marked the 50th anniversary of the Monterey International Pop Music Festival, the iconic three-day music fest held at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in 1967 that featured such artists as Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Grateful Dead, Ravi Shankar, Simon & Garfunkel, the first large-scale performance by Janis Joplin and the introduction of Otis Redding.

To celebrate the occasion, Monterey International Pop Festival’s 50th anniversary featured a lineup of original performers and newer artists alike who all paid tribute to the original event in some way.

Many of this year’s artists covered songs by 1967 performers, such as Norah Jones (Grateful Dead’s “Ripple”), Jack Johnson (Steve Miller Band’s “Joker”; Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady”), Nicki Bluhm & Dirty Dozen Brass Band (Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”), Hiss Golden Messenger (Grateful Dead’s “Brown Eyed Women”) and Booker T. Jones’ Stax Revue (Otis Redding’s “Respect”).

Monterey Pop International Festival 50 - Jim James


Jim James

The three-day stretch featured plenty of sit-ins and collaborations as well, including Father John Misty, Nathaniel Rateliff and Danny Clinch joining Leon Bridges for his encore, Jones dueting with Johnson on a beautiful cover of “I Shall Be Released” and Duane Betts joining North Mississippi Allstars for “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”, to name a few.

An on-site art exhibit featured original documents and photographs and showed parts of D.A. Pennebaker’s famed documentary “Monterey Pop”. The Morrison Hotel Gallery also hosted a pop-up gallery, which showcased 50 photographic prints of the artists that performed at the original festival, with several of the photographers in attendance.

The spirit of the Summer of Love could be felt throughout the weekend. Artists were honored as an important part of Monterey Pop’s legacy, and we all left with a sense of gratitude for its impact on contemporary culture and how we see music today.

Ryan Adams & The Unknown Band remind us at LA’s Greek Theatre why we keep coming back for more

Ryan AdamsBy Steph Port //

Ryan Adams & The Unknown Band with Karen Elson //
Greek Theatre – Los Angeles
June 3rd, 2017 //

“It’s good to be home,” touted singer and guitarist Ryan Adams, who performed at LA’s Greek Theatre with his Unknown Band last Saturday.

Fresh off a stop at Berkeley’s Hearst Greek Theatre the night before, Adams showcased some older favorites and a slew of new tunes from his 16th and latest studio album Prisoner, which came out in February. SoCal fans were treated to some extended full-band jamming, a couple of solo acoustic performances and Adams’ usual witty banter over the course of the evening.

English singer-songwriter Karen Elson got things started with a set of songs from her new LP Double Roses, as Jack White’s former wife and her bandmates exhibited airy vocals, ethereal melodies and haunting guitar licks.

Setlist:
Let It Ride (Ryan Adams & The Cardinals cover)
To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)
Magnolia Mountain (Ryan Adams & The Cardinals cover)
Two
Gimme Something Good
Dirty Rain
Fix It (Ryan Adams & The Cardinals cover)
Prisoner
Outbound Train
Shakedown on 9th Street
Do You Still Love Me?
Stay With Me
When the Stars Go Blue
Ashes & Fire
Peaceful Valley (Ryan Adams & The Cardinals cover)
Dear John (Ryan Adams & The Cardinals cover)
Doomsday
Wonderwall (Oasis cover)
improv > “What the Fuck Is That Shirt”
Everybody Knows
Invisible Riverside
New York, New York
Come Pick Me Up