Sharon Van Etten, Live At Whelan's

If you’ve never heard of folk-rock songstress Sharon Van Etten, you may want to look her up. One of America's better-kept secrets, the singer-songwriter’s loyal following has been building slowly over the course of three albums. Tonight, support act Exitmusic receive a warm, if polite, response, but there’s no question of who the crowd is really here for. The atmosphere quickly turns eager as they finish, and the crowd packs in to wait for Van Etten to begin her Dublin debut.

When she finally appears on stage, you'd be forgiven for disbelieving the almost adolescent-looking singer's real age of 31. Unassuming, soft spoken and sheepish, she tells the crowd she’s hoping not to fuck up, but if the nerves are real it’s impossible to tell. Performing with a quiet confidence and easy charm, Etten wins over the audience right from the opening ‘All I Can’, only putting a foot wrong when trying to pronounce the name of the Wexford St. venue.

The singer really hits her stride three songs in with the older ‘Epic’, while an earlier Twitter suggestion prompts a spellbinding performance of first album Because I Was In Love’s ‘Much More Than That’, sans band and with only a guitar to keep her company. This shows off perfectly the beautifully melancholic vocals she’s become known for, while contrasting with the newer, more energetic offerings from newest album Tramp that come after, ‘Leonard’ and ‘Serpents’, which also go down particularly well with the crowd.

Rounding out the performance with a different-than-usual version of ‘Love More’ (she couldn’t bring her harmonium) and another captivating performance of ‘Tornado’ with just her guitar, the reason for her critical success is clear. If you don’t know her yet, you soon will.