The song is taken from the recently formed group’s self-titled debut album, which was released on Friday (February 7) via Jagjaguwar. The band comprises singer-songwriter Van Etten alongside drummer Jorge Balbi, bassist Devra Hoff and keyboardist Teeny Lieberson.
The live performance went down on Thursday (February 6) and saw the band embrace the psych-fuelled heady rock energy of the album version.
‘Southern Life (What It Must Be Like)’ was one of the album’s early singles and has been described by Van Etten as being about “trying to understand people with very different perspectives and backgrounds, while also trying to be compassionate towards our past, present, and future selves.”
“After days of rehearsing the songs from the album and how to execute them live, I was getting tired of hearing myself. I didn’t want to over rehearse the songs to death. And so, for the first time ever, I asked if the band just wanted to “jam,” play without it having to be something, to clear our heads.”
