It’s a big day for Free At Noon guest Sharon Van Etten — the debut album from her new band Sharon Van Etten and The Attachment Theory released at midnight — and it’s a big week for the Free At Noon concert series — its 20th anniversary. Those two celebrations became one on the World Cafe Live stage today.

Free at Noon launched on February 11th, 2005 with a performance by singer-songwriter Donovan Frankenreiter. With the 20th anniversary proper falling directly between two Fridays, in true WXPN fashion, we doubled the celebration with two Free At Noons on either side, with some of our favorite artists. Next week’s Valentine’s Day Free At Noon with The Lumineers is already sold out, and today, it was another packed house of fans hearing Van Etten and her band debut songs from the new album.

She’s always been a compelling, charismatic performer who can leave an audience breathless with whispered melodies, emotive howls, and dynamic gestures, but the high-drama tone of The Attachment Theory particularly suits Van Etten right now. The atmosphere is simmering post punk and goth-adjacent pop, in a variety of forms. As the opening “Trouble” unfurled, she led the slow burn from behind a Moog synth; as the drum loop underbelly of “Afterlife” pulsed, she stepped to the front, gripped the microphone, and theatrically worked the crowd; on the rocked-up “Idiot Box,” she strapped on a guitar and delivered riffs and arpeggios. Bits of New Order, Kate Bush, and Patti Smith could be picked up in the sonic tapestry.

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory | photo by Paige Walter for WXPN

Between songs, Van Etten was down-to-earth, chatty, and fun; when the soft cry of an infant attendee broke the silence between songs, she gushed “I love the noon show. Coffee and babies.” She shouted out Philly and XPN for its early support, noting that “XPN played ‘Love More’ on the radio for the first time and it changed my life.”

Before throwing it back to 2014’s Are We There and the song “Tarifa,” famously featured in a roadhouse performance on Twin Peaks: The Return, she said “I want to say a little thank you to David Lynch for bringing so much beauty and mystery into the world. It was a massive loss, but so much beauty did he leave behind.”

And of course, she shouted out The Attachment Theory, a “really beautiful group of people”: Teeny Lieberson on keys, Shanna Polley on guitar, Jorge Balbi on drums, and bassist Devra Hoff. Together, they rocked the house with six of their self-titled album’s ten songs, with a lively re-imagining of “Every Time The Sun Comes Up” closing the show.

The music from today’s Free At Noon will appear on an upcoming episode of World Cafe — Van Etten also taped an interview with Raina Douris while she was in Philly today — and you can listen for it later this spring. WXPN Welcomes Sharon Van Etten and The Attachment Theory to Union Transfer on April 30th; more information can be found at the XPN Concert Calendar. Listen to the new album now, via Bandcamp.

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