Kristin Hersh

I got into the music of Kristen Hersh via her amazing solo single, 'Your Ghost', that featured Michael Stipe on backing vocals.  It was the mid-nineties and I was slightly obsessed with R.E.M., collecting anything that had even the vaguest connection to the band.  One of my prized possessions was the album Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry recorded with Warren Zevon under the pseudonym Hindu Love Gods.  It was mostly just throwaway pop and blues covers, stuff like Raspberry Beret and Junko Pardner but I totally loved it! 

It was a few years later that I heard Kristen Hersh and Michael Stipe doing a live version of Your Ghost on one of those po-faced late-night BBC2 arts shows.  I was totally hooked.  It’s a wonderfully haunting and austere song.  Just a simple acoustic guitar line accompanied by a sawing cello laying the groundwork for Hersh and Stipes interweaving vocals.  I bought the CD single the next day and soon after the album Hips and Makers (her first solo album).   The album was great and from there I plundered the back catalogue of Throwing Muses, an alternative band that Hersh fronted with her equally tremendous step-sister Tanya Donnelly (of Belly fame).  I’m ashamed to say that in the four-year gap between her first and second album she fell off my radar bit but I've been doing a bit of catching up and now I can't wait to see her live.

I'm going to have to though, as first up is support act Fred Abong.  Fred and Kirsten go way back and along with Rob Ahlers, he will provide backing for her set tonight.  In the nineties, Abong briefly played with Hersh in the Throwing Muses before leaving to form Belly with Tanya Donnelly.  He played bass on their debut album (one of the best albums of the nineties in this humble reviewers opinion) and co-wrote their song 'White Belly' with Donnelly.  

For this support set though he is playing original songs from his very recently  It's a visceral and honest performance, with a solid set of songs to back it up. released second EP, 'Pulsing'.  His songs are stripped back and stark.  A husky voice accompanied only be grungey distorted electric guitar chords or subtly fingerpicked acoustic.  It's a visceral and honest performance, with a solid set of songs to back it up.  I'm also impressed with Abong's lyrics.  I mean, you've got to love a line like: 'I swore it was punk, but I was just drunk on beer and soft cheese.'  'Pulsing' and 'Firefly' are the standout tracks for me and I will definitely be checking out the recorded versions on Bandcamp.

After a very short break, Abong is back onstage this time as the bassist in Kristen's electric trio.  They launch straight into a muscular version of 'L.A.X.' from her latest album, 'Possible Dust Clouds'.  This is one of the strongest tracks from an album that has been almost universally praised, that features perhaps her strongest set of solo songs since 'Hips and Makers'.  It's probably her loudest album too, with a sound that has more in common with her Throwing Muses and 50ft Wave days than her solo output.  Tonight's second song is 'Mississipi Kite' from 2010 album 'Crooked', featuring some great hard hitting drums and backing vocals from Rob Ahlers.  

For some reason, I've never taken much notice of Kristen's guitar playing but For some reason, I've never taken much notice of Kristen's guitar playing but I'm suddenly struck by what a great rhythm and lead player she is. I'm suddenly struck by what a great rhythm and lead player she is.  There is a real jagged urgency and quirkiness to her strumming and lead work is confident and inventive, particularly the solos.  And, of course, I'm practically in heaven when the band strike up an electrified version of 'Your Ghost'.  The trio has an almost Crazy Horse quality, with a great picked bass-line and a glorious raggedness to the guitar and drums, and the frenzied wah-wah guitar solo is just inspired.

The new album, 'Possible Dust Clouds', is well represented in the remainder of the set with 'No Shade In Shadow' and 'Half Way Home Being Particular' standouts.  Ahler lends the latter a Frank Black vibe and the band follow this up with another great song from 'Crooked', the catchy 'Sand'.  To end the set, Kristen pulls another 'Hips and Maker' track out of her hat.  'The Cuckoo', a traditional song American folk song, is here given a terrific electric arrangement with some great finger picking by Kristen.  Calls for an encore see the band dust off a track from Kristen and Robs early nineties project, 50 Foot Wave.  To be honest, I'm a little disappointed that 'Teeth', my favourite song from 'Hips and Makers', didn't get an airing, but there is always next time.