Hello there,
I went to see Kristin Hersh at the City Varieties
Theatre in Leeds last night, so here is a review....
Vic Chestnut (the support act) came on the stage at about
8:30pm, and proceeded to play a couple of acoustic songs on his
guitar, and sing about men being in love with their dogs, and other
(un)usual things...I don't know much about this guy, but he was sorta
ok...Not really funny though..I guess you have to be in the right
mood.
However, Kristin took to the stage at around 9:45, and that's
when things started to take off!!! She played a number of songs from
the album, but she also played no less than 4 throwing muses
songs..So I was smiling quite a bit then....
Here's the set list (not in order)
Sundrops (she actually opened with this tune)
Houdini Blues
Close Your Eyes
A Loon
Sparky
Teeth
Him Dancing
Hips and Makers
Amazing Grace
Cuckoo
Cottonmouth
Red Shoes
Pearl
Me And My Charms
The Key
Uncle June And Aunt Kiyoti
Tuesday Night (most apt :) )
+ one new song which I have never heard before (Maybe it was a cover
version)
Kristin admitted to not having a set list as such, she was
just playing as she went along. She played the first 6 songs without
saying anything inbetween, and I feared that she might not talk to
the crowd at all, but then she started to tell little anecdotes,
which had the audience in stitches.
After playing "Teeth", she told the audience about the show
she played in New York, where this girl, (as the second "this
Hairdo's truly evil" bit came around) started to shake in her chair
and move across the floor, and how the girl then burst into tears and
fell on her stomach. Kristin said that she was thinking of stopping
the show because she thought the girl was having a seizure or
something, but after the song, the girl got up and clapped and seemed
to be alright.
Kristin then told of how the girl came up to her at the end
of the show, and told her that she "Had a wonderful time"...and
Kristin told the audience "Wow...Someone pays me ten bucks to see me,
and then I make them cry, and they love it!..." and she said that she
is gonna invite the girl around to her house and "make her cry for
ten bucks" anytime :)
Kristin also talked about her babies, and how the one who's
featured in her new video (I forgot his name) is caught in a frame
where he is smiling and has his arms outstretched while he is running
to Kristin, and she said that when she saw that, she burst into
tears. She also said that there are only two things in the world
that make her cry, one, the babies, and two, the music.
(Awwwwwwwwwwwwww).
On the downside of things, Kristin's performance was
occasionally "interrupted" by people stepping on plastic glasses
(Which really made a loud, crunchy, disturbing noise!) as they came
back from the bar/toilet. Also, Before certain songs had ended,
people clapped, thinking it was the end of the song (especially in "A
Loon"-just before the quiet bit), but these are minor quibbles....
The celloist was excellent, Kristin was amazing, playing her
guitar flawless, and singing wonderfully...All in all a truly
wonderful show. If you have not been...Go and see her is my advice!
After the show, I hung around with a few other people, in
the hope that I might might this woman who means so much to me
musically...And surely enough, she appeared after 20 minutes or so,
to sign autographs and talk to the fans....
I asked her about how she learned to play guitar, saying
that her compositions use the "Chords from hell"! (As all you
guitarists out there sure know!!), and she replied, telling me that
she started playing guitar when she "was nine years old and f**ked in
the head". I was nervous talking to her, and I thought that the best
way to say "Thanks!" was to give her a hug, so I did!! She seemed
nicely surprised at that..(Indeed I was too, and it was quite
wonderful to meet someone who I had been a big fan of for so
many years)..and I left the Theatre smiling, reflecting on the gig
and the talented Mrs. Hersh....
Yours happily,
Martin J Clarke.
"I cling to science and history like cancer doesn't grow"