Angel Olsen Show Review

By Lee Ben-Hakoon

Angel Olsen’s second show of her All Mirrors tour leg took place in Asbury Lanes, an uber cool bowling alley/diner/concert venue in South Jersey. Warming up for Angel was Vagabon, a Cameroonian-American softly spoken artist with a powerful singing voice. Her beautiful blend of indie, alternative, and synth genres blended beautifully together, as well as lyrical elements nodding to feminism and her African culture. Personally, I am very excited to see her next musical ventures and only expect upward mobility in regards to her musical outreach.

Angel Olsen began her set with the ethereal titular single off her latest record, “All Mirrors.” The chanteuse’s powerful vocal range gave goosebumps and her playful back-and-forth banter with the crowd in between sets was highly entertaining. After playing with a robust sounding full band (violinist and cellist included), Angel played a few songs solo. Her setlist was predominantly focused on her most recent release, which slightly disappointed the crowd – myself included. From her seminal release and fan favorite record My Woman, Angel only sang “Shut Up Kiss Me,” and from Burn Your Fire for No Witness, “Unf***theworld.” Her Bruce Springsteen cover of “Tougher than the Rest” was played as a result of bolstering requests from the crowd in typical Jersey fashion. There was only one encore and one song played throughout it. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the show, and would give it an even higher rating if there was an even distribution of songs within her discography. Thank you to WMSC for this wonderful opportunity, and thank you to Angel Olsen for putting out such a multifaceted canon of work!

Rating – 9.2/10