Jason Bergman

Better Than: Happiness.

About halfway through his band's set on Saturday night, Nick Cave took a moment. He'd just finished a roaring rendition of "From Her to Eternity," the thumping, chaotic song from the Bad Seeds 1984 debut album of the same name. This was the Australian's final evening at the Beacon Theatre, finishing a three-night stay full of violent, jazz-tinged orchestral renditions of the band's entire repertoire. Backed by Sharon Van Etten (who opened) and Shilpa Ray, a string ensemble, and the Harlem Voices (a children's choir), the musician spent the previous 45 minutes bouncing around the stage, gliding back and forth like modern day vampire. Then the eccentric singer paused at center stage. He pointed at someone in the front row.

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Tonight, fans of the Velvet Underground will get to see their idols pay tribute to two of their most revered friends and collaborators--just not on the same stage. At Housing Works, Lou Reed will be celebrating the vinyl and digital re-issue of Allen Ginsberg's FIRST BLUES. Across the East River, John Cale will be kicking off his three-night run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with a sold-out tribute to Nico, which will also feature Sharon Van Etten, the Magnetic Fields, and Kim Gordon, among others. Torn on which show you'll hit later? Here's a brief preview of each, along with a few educated guesses as to which songs you'll get to hear Reed and Cale wax poetic on this evening.

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Luis Paez-Pumar

Sharon Van Etten
Mercury Lounge
Wednesday, January 18

Better than: Standing outside in that unbearable wind.

It's almost a New York City cliche at this point, but it holds up: there are few things better than tucking into a warm venue on a cold night in the city. It creates a sense of longing for more songs, more encores, more seconds enveloped in notes rather than winds. Last night at Mercury Lounge, Sharon Van Etten provided the warmth that the packed crowd of 250 so very badly needed.

One of the better features of Mercury Lounge is that the stage is low enough for the crowd to be almost level with the performers. (The playing field's even more level for those of us who are a bit taller.) This allowed Van Etten to keep a bit of banter going with the crowd, and to flash smiles at various audience memers—light touches that should not be underestimated, especially since she sings with a determined, almost trance-like demeanor. Between songs, she's a populist singer, worried about her self-described clumsiness and her audience's enjoyment. During songs, however? A meteor could crash into the venue and I'd be willing to bet that she finishes.

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Beirut w/ Sharon van Etten, Yellow Ostrich
McCarren Park
Friday, June 17

Better than: The rainout that at one point seemed likely.

It was hard to see Yellow Ostrich through all of the umbrellas when they first took the McCarren Park stage on Friday. By the time the band finished their first song, though, the umbrellas had been retracted and only a double rainbow to the north was keeping eyes off the Brooklyn three-piece, most notable for their use of multiple delay pedals to loop their vocals and instruments like trumpet or bari sax, or, as on the set's highlight "Daughters," all three on top of each other.

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Pic by Mike Benigno.

Sharon Van Etten's show Saturday night at Bowery Ballroom was both an intimate family affair and an acknowledgment that the once-cultish folkie is moving on to bigger, better things: One of those shows where everyone wants to sing along but they don't want to break the spell. Which makes it an ideal bootleg situation, actually; NYC Taper was there to capture the whole thing.

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It's OK if your eyes well up a little. Pics by Mike Benigno, more below.

Sharon Van Etten/Sebastian Blanck/The War on Drugs
Bowery Ballroom
Saturday, January 8

Better Than: Another night of "Love More" on repeat

Around 7 o'clock Saturday night, shortly before I had to catch a D train and head to Bowery Ballroom, I admit that I didn't want to go. I'd been excited for this show before that, but right then, as I lay in bed, preparing myself with another spin through Brooklyn folkie Sharon Van Etten's second album, Epic, my mood began to align with the record's, and the idea of stepping outside my apartment -- or even out of my bed -- started to seem like a drag. I managed to do it, though, and I'm glad I did.

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Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent. This is a compilation of 2010's best local music, lovingly curated by YIMBY columnist Christopher R. Weingarten. See last year's tape here.

R.I.P. Chris Weingarten's old blue trucker hat. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.

Have you heard the one about how the recession is over? Uh, don't tell it to New York City's musical community. While our center-of-the-universe assembly line of hype puttered on unabated, 2010's biggest up-and-comer success stories were actually beamed from the outer limits of the five boroughs--Titus Andronicus (Glen Rock, NJ), Screaming Females (New Brunswick, NJ), Phantogram (Saratoga Springs, NY), Real Estate (Ridgewood, NJ)--places where money can go to tour vans instead of landlords, where musicians aren't paying $400 a month for the luxury of sharing a practice space with three other bands. The remaining New York City indie-crossovers all benefited from frugal one-man home-recording set-ups (Oneohtrix Point Never, Matthew Dear), stripped down line-ups (the Drums, Sleigh Bells, Matt & Kim) or simply embracing the idea that sounding mushy is smarter than buying new gear (Small Black).

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Politely acidic Brooklyn folkie Sharon Van Etten is a burgeoning SOTC obsession -- her intoxicating sophomore album, Epic, is a killer if you're in a particularly emotionally vulnerable mood. (YIMBY'd closing track "Love More" especially.) She hasn't played around here lately, alas, denying us the chance to stand around feeling emotionally vulnerable in public, but that will mercifully change in the new year, with a lengthy U.S. tour (including a mess of dates opening for the National), including a January 8 show at Bowery Ballroom. We will be there. The recent "Tiny Desk Concert" concert she did for NPR (this appears to be a self-explanatory thing) will hopefully convince you to be there, too:

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Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing new and emerging MP3s from local talent.

Michael Palmieri

Brooklyn singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten is a perfect blend of fragility and warmth; a comforting hyphen uniting classic love ballads and post-modern drones. Her second album, Epic (due October 5 via Ba Da Bing!), is in the same swirling, mystical vein of kindred spirits like Marissa Nadler and Larkin Grimm, but injects tender nature-walk folk with the decidedly urban magnificence of massive drone skyscrapers--a perfect balance of city bustle, forest-dwelling meditation, and the tornado of lovelorn emotions that live in between them. The album's soaring final track, "Love More," has been a cult item passed around the blogosphere for a few months now, and her 3:30 p.m. appearance at this year's Pitchfork Fest all but guarantees an October of murmuring, well-deserved buzz. It's no fluke. Listen how "Love More" rises from brittle to triumphant, starting with a tender harmonium drone and Van Etten's cracked clarion coo and slowly building into a tidal wave of intricately weaved harmonies.

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