Sharon Van Etten has announced a 2022 Australian tour for December.
Sharon Van Etten will be bringing her beautiful and cathartic live show down under in the wake of her new album, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong. Sharon Van Etten (Shazza to her mates!) brings her stunning touring band of Jorge Balbi on drums, Devon Hoff on bass, Teeny Lieberson on vocals and synths, and live musical director Charley Damski on synths and guitars.
Special guest for the Brisbane and Melbourne shows will be BATTS (Melbourne producer/singer-songwriter Tanya Batts), with whom Sharon recently collaborated on “Blue”, the first single from the new BATTS album The Nightline (out October 14 on Mistletone Records). Fresh from her “Wild Hearts” US tour withAngel Olsen and Julien Baker, Sharon Van Ettenbrings her fierce, heart-exploding intensity back to Australia at the very height of her powers. Tickets on sale Monday.
Sharon Van Etten 2022 Australian tour
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall: Thursday December 1
Tickets On Sale: Thu 1 Sep, 9am Aest
Ticket Link
Brisbane: The Tivoli: Saturday December 3
Special Guest: Batts
Tickets On Sale: Mon 29 Aug, 9am Aest
Ticket Link
Fremantle Arts Centre: Monday December 5
Special Guest: Banjo Lucia
Tickets On Sale: Mon 29 Aug, 9am Awst
Ticket Link
Melbourne / Northcote Theatre: Thursday December 8
Special Guest: Batts
Tickets On Sale: Mon 29 Aug, 9am Aest
Ticket Link
Meredith Music Festival: Sat Dec 10
Mmf.Com.Au
Check out Melbourne’s most comprehensive gig guide here.
Van Etten has always been a wholehearted artist — the kind of songwriter who helps people make sense of the world around them. Her newest work concerns itself with how we feel, mourn, and reclaim our agency when we think the world – or at least, our world – might be falling apart. How do we protect the things most precious to us from destructive forces beyond our control? and how do we salvage something worthwhile when it seems all is lost? In considering these questions and her own vulnerability in the face of them, Van Etten creates a stunning meditation on how life’s changes can be both terrifying and transformative; articulating the beauty and power that can be rescued from the wreckage.
As always, we are at the mercy of Van Etten’s voice: the way it loops and arcs, the startling and emotive warmth of it. What started as a certain magic in Sharon’s early recordings has grown into confidence, clarity and wisdom, even as she sings with the vulnerable beauty that has become her trademark. Sharing her songs remains an optimistic and generous act which tells a larger story of hope, loss, longing and resilience; all held together by Sharon’s uncanny ability to both pierce the hearts of her listeners and make them whole again.
When the time came to return to her solo work, Van Etten reclaimed the reins, writing and producing the album in her new recording studio, custom built in her family’s Californian home. The more she faced – whether in new dangers emerging or old traumas resurfacing – the more tightly she held onto these songs and recordings, determined to work through grief by reasserting her power and staying squarely at the wheel of her next album. In fact, that interplay of loss and growth became a blueprint for what would become We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong. The album artwork reflects that, too, inspired as much by Sharon’s old life as her new one. “I wanted to convey that in an image with me walking away from it all. Not necessarily brave, not necessarily sad, not necessarily happy..”
Sharon’s new work is intensely personal, exploring themes like motherhood, love, fear, what we can and can’t control, and what it means to be human in a world that is wracked by so much trauma. We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong is as much a reflection on how we manage the ending of metaphorical worlds as we do the ending of actual ones: the twin flames of terror and unrelenting love that light up with motherhood; navigating the demands of partnership when your responsibilities have changed; the loss of centre and safety that can come with leaving home; how the ghosts of our past can appear without warning in our present; feeling helpless with the violence and racism in the world; and yes, what it means when a global viral outbreak forces us to relinquish control of the things that have always made us feel so human, and seek new forms of connection to replace them.
Find out more info at Sharon’s website here.
