By keith valfreya | may 9, 2025
The air is warm when I arrive at History, one of those early spring nights that feels borrowed from July. The crowd on Queen Street is more than just the concert goers first the first time this year. I’m reminded that life is still happening, and sometimes music is the only thing that makes that clear. The headliner tonight is Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory.
Sharon Van Etten has been shapeshifting through genres since her debut in 2009, always leaning into the emotional marrow of things. Before The Attachment Theory, she was already an indie oracle, a voice that’s unmistakable, in parts both defiant and aching. She’s racked up a solid stack of acclaim, including praise from Pitchfork, and collaborations with Angel Olsen and Norah Jones. This tour, in support of her newest evolution with The Attachment Theory, feels both fresh and familiar, like she’s circling back to herself, but from higher ground.
Opening tonight is Love Spells, a reverb-soaked solo project from Sir Taegen C’aion Harris. The soft dreamy vocals evoke the likes of Hope Sandoval from Mazzy Star. When Sharon takes the stage, she moves with ceremony. Between songs she tells a winding story of her history with a friend who painted the stage backdrops, only to laugh and say the next song isn’t about them at all. On No One’s Easy to Love, she breaks through the dark like a flare, putting the power of her voice on display. Tarifa, which was featured in Twin Peaks, she dedicates to David Lynch who passed away earlier this year. For Seventeen, she climbs down from the stage, singing directly to audience members in the front row. And for the encore, she returns alone with I Wish I Knew, recalling her early days in folk, which she jokingly said was because she had a guitar and was afraid to play with other people. The band rejoins for Fading Beauty, dedicated to her father-in-law, along with a plea to pay attention and live in the present.
The show feels like a secret passed around the room. The spectacle here isn’t in elaborate theatrics or pyrotechnics, it’s in the authenticity and sincerity that Sharon Van Etten exudes with every word. She writes and performs like someone who is trying to understand herself and invites us to do the same.
Keith Valfreya is a freelance photojournalist for Majestic Music Magazine. See more of his work here
