Back Beat Seattle | Memory Lane

Marissa Nadler @ the Tractor – 10/19/18
Show Review & Photos by Lisa Hagen Glynn
Memory Lane Series, part 66

**Marissa Nadler** – photo by Lisa Hagen Glynn

Gothic-folk artist Marissa Nadler played a pretty and melancholic opening set at the Tractor Tavern on October 19, 2018 . Her tour supported her September 2018 release, For My Crimes, which also features prominent vocalists Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, and Kristin Kontrol. Like all her albums, it has been critically acclaimed.

Nadler played nine songs from across her discography, alternating among electric, acoustic, and 12-string guitars. At times she was accompanied by a mysterious guitarist–vocalist shadowed behind a cattleman hat.

Nadler is a seasoned vocalist whose live performances can be indistinguishable from her studio albums. Although her show did want for the texture of her small string section and ethereal double-tracked harmonies, it didn’t cost any haunting beauty. There is a palpable darkness to all her music, and her lyrics confirm pervasive themes of loss: in this set, the passing of a cherished car, a lover moving to the South, and even an inmate on death row. But tossing devastation aside, Nadler joked between tunes and greeted fans warmly afterward. Seattle is fortunate that she always schedules a stop here.

Headlining 1980s avant-garde rockers Mercury Rev put on a quirky, high-energy set with plenty of fog and onstage dancing. The horns of the T.T. cow skull were decorated for Halloween—a little bit—with a strand of polyester spider web.

Late edit: Nadler returns to Seattle on October 9th, 2019. Be sure to catch her show at the Neptune.

**Marissa Nadler** – photos by Lisa Hagen Glynn

Marissa Nadler @ the Tractor – 10/19/18
Show Review & Photos by Lisa Hagen Glynn
Memory Lane Series, part 66

Late edit: Nadler returns to Seattle on October 9th, 2019. Be sure to catch her show at the Neptune.

Liz Phair @ the Showbox, 9/18/18
Photos by Alex Crick
Memory Lane Series, part 65

Angel Olsen w/Hand Habits @ the Moore, 9/14/18
Show Review & Photos by Lisa Hagen Glynn
Memory Lane Series, part 64

Asheville
indie-folk artist Angel Olsen played an intimate solo set at Seattle’s Moore
Theatre, accompanied by only spotlights, two guitars, and a bit of fog. Olsen’s
Tiny Dreams Solo Tour contrasted with her last Seattle appearance, an upbeat
whole-band production at the Neptune Theatre in February 2017.

Olsen’s
voice is powerful yet delicate, with a silky vibrato like a slide guitar. She
pairs a familiar vintage sweetness with a modern irreverence.

“Here’s
one I wrote when I was 22 and knew everything about life,” quipped Olsen as she
announced that she would play some sad songs. Much of her earlier work
personified loneliness and desertion, and she still does it spectacularly:
“Lonely Universe” left the auditorium pin-drop silent and a little tearful. But
Olsen is versatile, clever, and very talented, and she can pull off humorous
synth-pop just as easily as classic country.

The
12-tune set spanned several albums, including the 2017 compilation Phases.
She mostly avoided her hits, even after a witty back-and-forth with the
audience about what to play next. (Olsen ended up defiantly choosing her own
tune.) She also kvetched about guitar tuning, festival touring, and having to
play an 8 a.m. radio gig hungover the last time she was in Seattle, dropping
endearing F-bombs along the way. Olsen closed with a Bruce Springsteen cover,
“Tougher Than the Rest.”

Los
Angeles-based Meg Duffy performed as Hand Habits, opening with a set of
introspective guitar and vocals.