Angel Olsen's voice soars at Revelry, Photo by Catie Rutledge

Angel Olsen took the stage just over five hours into the second annual Revelry Music & Arts Festival on a rather unseasonably brisk Saturday afternoon. I was a bit disappointed at the weak turnout at the start of her set but by the time she'd reached her fourth or fifth song, a respectable crowd had formed to bask (dare I say, revel?) in the St. Louis native's lo-fi folk/rock angst.

Not surprisingly, Ms. Olsen brought a strong air of stoicism to her performance, cranking out tunes about yearning and heartbreak while looking vaguely detached from any real emotion. There's a palpable mysteriousness to both the songs and the way she plays them—when Olsen plainly declares “all is forgiven, all is forgotten” it's pretty clear there's a lot more going on and neither of those statements are entirely true. Her voice is fragile and oftentimes full of sorrow (even on her more upbeat tracks) but she also has impressive range and a sort of timeless quality to her style of singing. Songs like “unfucktheworld” and “Lights Out” sound like they would be at home on some folk radio station in the late 1940s. Saying almost nothing between songs and donning dark shades, Olsen let her introspective and melancholy music speak for itself. The set was short and sweet—Olsen left us wanting just a bit more. Alas, there are no encores at Revelry.

I was pleasantly surprised to spot her ambling around the terrace immediately after her set, taking in the burgeoning, perhaps still a bit awkward Madison festival. Angel Olsen conveys jaded mystery on stage, but at the end of the day she might just be a regular gal looking to enjoy a beer at the Union while watching a silent disco.

-Clark Gapen