Flood Warning: Sharon Van Etten Is Bringing an Electric Connection to Denver

The last time Sharon Van Etten played a show in Denver, a storm blew in from the mountains and flooded the streets, forcing the venue to bar the crowd inside until the torrent passed. “It was actually a sweet little lock-in," Van Etten recalls. Sudden weather has a way of bringing people closer together. Music, too.

Like Denver in springtime, Van Etten’s music is given to swings – from moody and slow to effusively bright, from pop-centric to post-punk and nearly avant-garde. Her latest album with the Attachment Theory, a new band assembled of players who’ve been backing her for years, is an ambitious attempt to marry those fields into something layered and robust, like the clouds above a storm. On Monday, May 12, she’ll return to Denver to play the Ogden Theatre with the new band.

The formation of the Attachment Theory was natural but unexpected. “We hadn’t all played in the same room since before COVID,” Van Etten explains. “The last record was made from afar, so we rented a house in the desert where we could all connect as human beings, and have a studio to rehearse and figure out how we were going to play those songs live. Something pretty magical happened there. We’d rehearsed everything and I was tired of hearing myself, so I asked if they’d be down to jam a bit. We ended up writing two songs in an hour. I left that rehearsal thinking, ‘This is exciting. This is the next thing I want to do.’”
That excitement culminated in Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory, and the release of the band’s eponymous debut record earlier this year. The spirit of the project is right there in the name — connection, collaboration, attachment. For Van Etten and the band, the record and the tour are an opportunity to musically manifest something that has been slipping away in the recent however many years, both in terms of how music is made and how people live.

In all of her music, Van Etten channels several influences into a storm of sonic layers. New Wave is prominent, appealing to Gen X’ers who came of age during the genre’s first crash with bands like the Cure and Joy Division, and to zoomers who’ve newly discovered the power of eyeliner and big pants. “This record is very post-punk driven, from that early-'80s era and those UK bands,” she says. “There's a bit of Pylon in there, a hint of Nine Inch Nails. Kate Bush and Grace Jones, even some early U2.”

A current of social consciousness surges through the record, especially on such tracks as “Idiot Box” and “Somethin’ Ain’t Right,” but the musical dynamism and lyrical nuance soften what might have otherwise become heavy-handed. You can probably guess what an Idiot Box is, but the springy guitar riff and upbeat vocals turn a solemn critique of self-absorbed tech use into a spirited call to go outside and be a person for once.

“We all rely on our devices, from our phones to our computers to, you know, even our TVs, if people still have those anymore. But it's a constant struggle in day-to-day life,” she reflects. “Being in a room together and feeling the vibrations and having conversations is a huge part of what made this record.”

Van Etten hopes that the shows with the Attachment Theory will generate the same electricity that occurred in those early jam sessions in the desert, flash flood or not. “The core of the record is live performance. It was written live and recorded live,” she says. “The process was special. And we’re going to bring that to the shows as well.”

Sharon Von Etten & The Attachment Theory, 8 p.m. Monday, May 12, the Ogden Theater, 935 East Colfax Avenue, Denver. Tickets are $51-$181.