Watch Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen and Julien Baker perform ‘Like I Used To’ in New York
Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen and Julien Baker wrapped ‘The Wild Hearts Tour’ up in New York last weekend, performing two shows at the Central Park SummerStage. During the encore of that second gig – which took place Sunday night (August 21) – Baker joined Olsen and Van Etten to perform the latter pair’s joint single ‘Like I Used To’.
Olsen and Van Etten had performed the song together across the entirety of the North American tour – a triple-headliner stint that spanned 20 shows over the past month – appearing in the encore during either of their individual sets. They played it with Baker as part of Van Etten’s set on Sunday – it was the first to see Baker join in, adding to an already sprawling tonal palette as she strummed along on guitar.
During Saturday night’s (August 20) show, Baker and Van Etten joined Olsen to cover Harry Nilsson’s 1971 song ‘Without You’. Similarly to ‘Like I Used To’, Olsen and Van Etten had teamed up to perform the cover at a handful of shows across the tour.
Have a look at crowd-shot footage of both moments below:
‘Like I Used To’ was released last May as somewhat of a prelude to Olsen and Van Etten’s respective sixth albums, ‘Big Time’ and ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’. Both records landed earlier this year: Olsen’s came in June and earned a four-star review from NME, just under a month after Van Etten’s arrived to a three-star review.
Back in April, Van Etten hinted that she and Olsen may link up for another song in the future. Speaking to NME for her recent cover story, she gushed: “Angel is one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever met, and our friendship is still growing… Our schedules are pretty crazy coming up, but I feel like this is just the beginning of working together.”
Meanwhile, last month Baker released an EP of B-sides from last year’s ‘Little Oblivions’ album – aptly titled ‘B-Sides’ – previewed by the emotive single ‘Guthrie’. In the year and a half since she released ‘Little Oblivions’, Baker has shared collaborations with the likes of Fucked Up and The Ophelias, and contributed to a compilation album to raise money for the National Network of Abortion Funds.
She’s also released a ‘Little Oblivions’ remix EP, covered a Smashing Pumpkins song for a seven-inch split with Van Etten, and teamed up with Tom Morello and Nandi Bushell for the Afghan charity single ‘God Help Us All’. Last July, too, she re-recorded the ‘Little Oblivions’ song ‘Faith Healer’ in Simlish.
