Olender captures the anxieties of an ever-moving world on her second full-length album The Worrier, where all are invited to mourn the fleeting nature of our experiences and yell into the ether.

Songwriter Al Olender tries to grasp the brief, beautiful moments that make up our lives in slow-motion but finds that the tighter she holds on, the more these frames fall into a soupy blur. Change is our only constant, but what if we wanted to steep in the now? What if we could stay right here? Olender captures the anxieties of an ever-moving world with a sweet and silly sincerity on her second full-length album The Worrier, never shying away from staring the truth right in the face. Exploring anxiety, sexuality and anarchy, both in herself and in her relationships, Olender’s acoustic, bluesy melodies point to the butterflies of first crushes, the gut-punching realities of responsibility and the eternal romance of friendship.

She has never shied away from the goopy mess that comes with laying your heart on the line. On her 2022 debut album, Easy Crier, Olender stared the truth right in the face and got to know the all-encompassing shadow of grief. She learned to stop lying and to really live in deep sincerity, no matter how shaky or silly it could feel. By stepping into this boundless reality, Olender connected with herself and those closest to her more than she ever had. Now, after a few years on the road touring solo in her beloved Mazda, opening for the likes of Bonny Light Horseman, Langhorne Slim, Rayland Baxter, John Moreland, Shovels & Rope, Deer Tick and Lucius, she finds herself aching for those connections to stay still, to be just the same as when she left them. To chase your dream, to make art and see the world, often means loosening your grip on the very things that allowed you to do that in the first place. For Olender, that’s a tough one to swallow.

“It’s a new season of my life but how do I hold on to everything I love?” she asks. “Is change almost worse than the loss I've experienced?” After the sudden death of her older brother Keith, Olender found reprieve in her songwriting and built a beautiful community in her home of Kingston, NY. Now older than Keith was when he passed, Olender finds that as she enters new phases of her life––ones that Keith never got to experience––new forms of grief and worry bubble to the surface. “Every year is a little further from him and that’s the sad hard truth. He is never far from any of these songs.” As she has grown, Olender has come to realize that she now loves people in different ways, never holding back from discovering every aspect of herself: anxiety, sexuality and anarchy, both in herself and in her relationships. Although she’s in an almost constant state of worry, she can also hold the beauty and luck that her life beholds. The Worrier nourishes these contradictions.

Olender wrote these songs in motion while trying to hold still: highway scenes speeding past a driver side window; quick-scrolling through phone photo albums; running through the airport to say goodbye; kissing a stranger in a new town; calling a friend out of the blue. It felt necessary that these kaleidoscopes of swirling memory be captured in an instant, much like the moments that are gone too fast. Olender recorded them in just under a week with producer Nick Kinsey (Waxahatchee, Kevin Morby, Scott McMicken, Elvis Perkins) at Chicken Shack Recording. She wanted the album to feel human, to hear each crackle, strum or phone alarm and so, they recorded live to tape, just Olender and her friends in one room, one take at a time.

Olender has crafted an album that captures our most important moments but doesn’t try to create meaning or resolution. These are brief, beautiful glimpses into the characters that adorn our stories, nourishing the person we become or hope to be. “I've been so good at pushing things away and not confronting them and then losing people,” Olender explains. “In this season of life, the best part is that I can talk; even in the hard moments, even crying on FaceTime, even being away. I've been lucky to have such incredible women that have given me chances and let me fail and let me disappear, and still, they have not abandoned me.” The Worrier is the chance to be a better version of ourselves. It says: we’re still here and we’re trying our best.

Abigail Dempsey opens the show. The Philly-based hotshot has developed a cult following of devoted fans in her decade of professional performance with her powerhouse vocals, audacious dancing, and intoxicating stage presence. Ab takes a step back from the full band energy this February with the release of her self recorded, self produced EP ‘Old Love, Old Heartbreak’. Her first release since 2020, Abigail brings us along for the last thirteen years of falling in and out of love. Recorded in her living room, lava lamps aglow and snacks on hand, ‘Old Love, Old Heartbreak’ showcases Dempseys’ breadth of musicianship and her tender hearted, empowered songwriting. Her melodies are catchy but meaningful, and even though her array of talents prove why she’s in the spotlight, you get the welcoming feeling that to Abigail, you’re as important to the show as she is.

With only 100 seats, shows at Révéler are intimate and immersive. A romantic venue with exquisite sound and dreamy vibes, Révéler offers a unique selection of cocktails, wines, beers, bubbles, and non-alcoholic beverages. Our kitchen delivers small plates crafted with care.

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