Angel Olsen @ Agora (2/2/2023)
When I stepped into the Agora, after a long hiatus from attending big shows and shooting concerts, I immediately felt this sense of change and awareness in space and time. A return to seeing people rejoice and share a common experience of wonder, anticipation, and joy brought out feelings of solidarity.The atmosphere in which everyone came out to see Angel Olsen on a Thursday night on a cold February winter exuded warmth. Angel Olsen and her Big Time Band had just hit the road not too long ago for their Winter US tour, and Cleveland fans who came out were blessed to see not only a wonderful show, but a sincere and heartfelt immersion into Olsen’s music that spoke meaningful themes of the human condition.
I was experiencing Olsen’s music that had this visceral grasp into how time and space affects the human condition. How time and all the things that are encompassed by it, allows one to look inward and see how the self is always changing, always discovering. How we as human beings find ways to grow and heal from our past. And sometimes change is scary and times moves too fast for us to clutch the feeling of forever in our hearts and make it stay. Angel Olsen is here to convey those kinds of abstract feelings to us. To relate to us in musical feelings and also her down to earth conversations in between songs throughout the show. The artist constantly reinvents herself and her music, and in the era of Big Time, the soundscape influenced by country warmth is fused with lyrics about love and healing. How time moves on.
You can feel how Olsen sees how there’s constant flux of conflict with days passing by expressed in the song “Right Now”, off the new album, Big Time. Angel Olsen and The Big Time Band play it with such grace and such power. The band is so tightly interwoven into Olsen’s range of older works too, that those songs feel refreshingly new. Past favorite hits like the popular “Shut Up, Kiss Me Tight” make a comeback into this show, and even songs like “All Mirror” are gorgeously played thanks to an orchestral duo on violin and cello.
Fans that night were moved. The music in the air was warm and soothing. For me, it was important to rejoice and observe how fellow concert goers looked inward amongst themselves and felt peace, love, and closeness. I could see many couples so touched by Angel Olsen’s music. You could see them holding hands and hugging each other. In love. Those were important little moments that were big to them. Those kinds of little pockets in time and space between people could have lasted forever. And that kind of feeling to hold onto, to hold close to the heart, to grasp onto forever is exactly conveyed in Angel Olsen’s last song, “Chance”. It’s a beautiful, moody, and heart wrenching song that feels like an instant classic. For me, it’ll always be my favorite song, as I held my life partner in my arms, swaying to The Big Time Band’s beautiful melodies. To me, a feeling of forever means existing in the moment. And I hope that these moments in time that I captured of these wonderful musicians helps cement the memories of a good time had by all.
As we both watched Angel Olsen and The Big Time Band bow out, I knew forever existed right then and there for those artists.
Photos and Words by Kevin Ng
