Angel Olsen Gets Drunk, Checks Her Attitude and Morphs Into a Rock Star at Crystal Ballroom

“You know why I don’t dance? ’Cause I fuckin’ sing.”

Angel Olsen performing at Crystal Ballroom. IMAGE: Thomas Teal.
By Isabel Zacharias
Angel Olsen used to be a cheerleader. The reason she quit, she revealed to the sold-out crowd at Crystal Ballroom on Feb. 17, was because she “had a shitty attitude all the time.”
“I was like, ‘I wanna be in a rock’n’roll band! I wanna be Gwen Stefani!’” she said, her laugh making clear that she’d had a few backstage. “So this is what I’m doing now—my Gwen Stefani band.”
Throughout the show, Olsen balanced coy stage banter with the piercing, vibrato-laced howls of her singing voice, playing charming, maladjusted oddball and raging, heartsick sex goddess at the same time. The combination was enchanting, and an absolute blast to behold.

When Olsen’s band—dressed in matching powder-blue suits, on a stage decorated like a ‘50s country prom—kicked into “Shut Up Kiss Me,” the full-tilt guitar-rock love plea that electrifies last year’s acclaimed My Woman with shrieking, unforgettable romance, the audience’s innocent crush on Olsen turned pornographic. “I could take it down to the floor,” she sang, “you don’t have to feel it any more/A love so real that it can’t be ignored.” The real begging came after the last verse, when she ripped out a pained, growly soprano chorus of ohs. Olsen’s voice is more than beautiful, bending and snarling and opening and closing to be present with each phrase’s feeling and cadence. And hearing it in person is so much more than pleasant—it speaks and it pierces and it makes you think, Ouch.

At every turn—from 2014 miniature mantra handbook “Lights Out” to infectious, never-ending closer “Give It Up”—Olsen laid bare the duplicitous and wildly emotional experience of being a real person with a real, hurtful history. My Woman proclaims Olsen’s refusal to lose her self-ownership in the process of loving and being loved, and onstage, simultaneously playing Angel Olsen the person and Angel Olsen the newly-crowned rock star, she did the same—laughing, screaming and beautifully throwing her weight around.

“You know why I don’t dance?” she said at one point. “’Cause I fuckin’ sing.”

All photos by Thomas Teal.

Angel Olsen performing at Crystal Ballroom. IMAGE: Thomas Teal.
(Thomas Teal)
(Thomas Teal)
(Thomas Teal)
(Thomas Teal)
(Thomas Teal)
(Thomas Teal)
(Thomas Teal)
(Thomas Teal)

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