Concert review: The Wild Hearts Tour at Rabbit Rabbit
Despite the near crushing temperatures of a midsummer heatwave, it seemed everyone was at Rabbit Rabbit for The Wild Hearts Tour on July 22. And for good reason: the combination of three distinct female powerhouses — Asheville’s own Angel Olsen, plus Sharon Van Etten and Julien Baker — on the same bill was more than enough of an incentive to brave the elements.
Though a much needed, post-work power nap kept me from catching 2019 Tiny Desk Contest winner Quinn Christopherson’s opening set, and the full extent of Baker’s time on stage (thanks aging!), the latter’s commanding vocals pierced the street as I approached the venue. As soon as I walked in, I noticed tour merchandise boasting “I went to ‘The Wild Hearts Tour’ and all I got was emotional” — an early sign I was exactly where I needed to be. As someone whose hobbies include crying and soul searching, I couldn’t imagine a more fitting lineup.
Though Asheville was only the second stop of the tour after its Virginia kick-off the night before, the energy at Rabbit Rabbit carried a sense of homecoming. Camaraderie was evident all around me, including within my own friends group as, ahead of Van Etten’s set, we were briefly joined by mayoral candidate Kim Roney, a uniting force between Asheville’s political and creative scenes.
Van Etten came out with the emotional and synth driven “Headspace” off her most recent album, We've Been Going About This All Wrong. By her third song, “Comeback Kid,” any lingering audience impatience brought on by heat and an early start time seemed to wear off and everyone was dancing, including a bouncing baby in noise-reducing headphones. Van Etten joked that she knew she was on Angel’s turf, conceding to Olsen the hometown headlining advantage, before launching into “Serpents,” an appropriately venomous track where Van Etten spits, “You enjoy suckin’ on dreams.”
She then shifted to the more wistful “Every Time the Sun Comes Up,” the closing track from 2014’s Are We There, to which the audience sang and swayed, groups joining arm-in-arm in an around-the-campfire fashion. The whole evening felt like an extension of summer camp days, a suspension of everyday life as we escaped into the vulnerability and community of song.
Van Etten expressed her gratitude for not only being able to tour again following the COVID-19 pandemic, but for the comradery — not competitiveness — surrounding the Wild Hearts Tour. She talked about how the pandemic influenced her most recent album, which she referred to as “a dark record,” but insisted that her next number, “Darkish,” was light. The song, she said, is meant to capture that brief moment in the early pandemic where the world was simultaneously crippled by uncertainty and temporarily relieved from the demands of everyday chaos. That time of initial isolation where no one was on the roads and everything was so still that you could hear the birds chirping. A great reset. As such, she included the sound of birds on the track to highlight this sentiment of finding hope in uncertainty, taking respite in stillness.
She sharply transitioned out of the ballad by jumping into the upbeat, indie-pop crowd favorite, “Mistakes,” in which she proudly showed the audience that she does indeed “dance like Elaine,” as the Seinfeld-referencing lyrics state. She then closed with her hit “Seventeen,” a love letter to her former self and the city that shaped her. Van Etten moved to NYC in 2005, relocating with her family to LA in 2019.
Olsen and her band later flooded the stage in a procession of bright, primary colors with the frontwoman herself donning a bold, banana-yellow jumpsuit that seemed plucked right from the ’70s. Against the sultry backlights, the entire aesthetic was a technicolor dream — fitting, as Olsen opened with “Dream Thing,” a ballad near crippling with nostalgia off of 2022’s Big Time, a decidedly country album written in a particularly transformative time in Olsen’s life.
Soon after coming out and coming to terms with her own queerness, Olsen lost both her parents. Big Time captures that loss along with the ache from her first queer heartbreak with a longtime friend. The honkytonk title track off the album played next — a silver-lining anthem brimming with hope and yearning. Olsen’s refrain, “Guess I had to be losing to get here on time,” had me tearing up before darkness could set in to hide my face.
With “Ghost On,” and “All The Flowers,” Olsen invited a more ethereal experience. Her voice — powerful and moving — had me holding my breath. I was transfixed by her quiet energy and ability to command a crowd, even in softness. Her raw vulnerability crept in and I felt suddenly aware of myself for the first time in weeks. It felt as if the haunting, honey notes of Olsen’s vocals lured me back into my body after a long hibernation. After a period of feeling frozen and disconnected from myself, I began to unthaw.
Just as my soul started to melt, my body was jolted to life by “Shut Up and Kiss Me,” a near-chaotic ode to the impatience of love that really got the audience dancing. By then, the sun had set and night crept in. And though the darkness brought some relief, the thick, heavy air of the late summer South still surrounded. But no longer exposed by the blinding light of afternoon —and perhaps aided by alcohol — the audience loosened. Strangers joined to dance, couples embraced. Despite being squarely downtown on a Friday night in peak tourist season, there was something undeniably local about the evening.
Lulled into a state of pure vulnerability, my heart was open and ready when Van Etten was brought back for the encore to join Olsen on their rousing duet, “Like I Used To,” a song that unapologetically showcases their massive, shared talent. The track is also a nod to both artists’ value of comradery over competition, the sentiment earlier expressed by Van Etten.
The duo closed out the night with a cover of Harry Nilsson’s “Without You,” the first few lines igniting an eruption from the audience. Everyone around me locked arms and joined in for the chorus, and when the house lights went up, I quickly dried my tears. Just as the merchandise predicted, I went to The Wild Hearts tour and got nothing short of emotional.
(Photos by Jonny Leather)
