Mandela Hall gig by American star Sharon Van Etten combined best of artist’s new and older material
Covering Sinead O’Connor’s classic ballad Black Boys on Mopeds was a centrepiece when Sharon van Etten was touring her brilliant 2019 album Remind Me Tomorrow .
But the song hasn’t been a regular feature on her 2025 tour and the New Yorker, sitting on stage at the Mandela Hall with just an acoustic guitar during the encore on Wednesday, was forced to re-start it several times, accompanied by frustrated expletives before she eventually got it right.
In lesser accomplished hands, it could have been an uncomfortable moment, but this is Van Etten, a modern-day indie great at the peak of her powers on the second date of an Irish tour which also includes gigs in Cork and Dublin.
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The crowd stuck with her emphatically, and the roars as she brought the song to a conclusion were among the loudest of a wonderful night.
That the newly modernised Mandela Hall, a superb venue with faultless acoustics, wasn’t at capacity perhaps says more about the struggles of the Belfast guitar music scene than Van Etten.
Unlike some artists who prefer trotting out a litany of old material, Van Etten showcased her latest album, her seventh, and her first with her band the Attachment Theory, in all its glory.
It dominated the front end of the gig and sounded better than on the record itself and a crowd clearly dominated by Van Etten loyalists gave the songs a rapturous welcome.
Of course, there was still time for a sprinkling of the best tunes from Remind Me Tomorrow, the album where she left behind the acoustics and slow pace of her earlier work, with a fuller, more electric sound and songs you can dance and sway to.
Comeback Kid , No One’s Easy to Love , Hands and the best song Van Etten has written, Seventeen , sounded as good as ever.
A blistering version of Seventeen, with Van Etten down on her knees staring imploringly into the eyes of some of those closest to the stage, was followed by the initial hushed silence of I Want You Here , which eventually breaks into a stunning crescendo. It’s the closing song on the new album and its best.
The pace slowed for the encore, dominated by Black Boys on Mopeds , and finishing with two immaculately sung old classics, Give Out and Love More . It was a spellbinding end to a magical evening.
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