It seems only appropriate that, given the last time I visited this evocative old church venue it was for the spiky, challenging and confrontational female-fronted noise of Savages, last Autumn, that my next visit should be for their obvious spiritual forbears Throwing Muses! Barely 3 years after I, along with fellow Muses uber-fans Beef and Ady, was regaled by a returning Kristin Hersh tour de force at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, we were looking forward to another one. Adding intrigue to tonight’s sell-out show was the presence of former Belly main-woman, and of course also former Muse, Tanya Donelly, as a “plus” on the bill. How would this work; would Tanya be simply support, or would she actually join her former bandmates and step-sister during some/most/all of the Muses set? Would said set include some of Tanya’s Muses songs, always the aural candyfloss to Hersh’s harsh spiky peanut brittle? Who knows with these crazy girls?!
Still
a little sore from a chest muscle strain at the weekend, I persuaded
Ady to pick us up in the monster truck, and we clattered west into the
setting sun early doors, parking up around the corner
in good time and heading to the bar, thence bumping into lots of people
I knew as we found a spot stage right, near the front, for Tanya’s set
at 8.30. I’d run into fellow veteran gig-goer Stuart (again!) who’d
given me a brief heads-up on tonight’s possible
events, so we were ready when Tanya took the stage, accompanied by
guitarist hubby Dean Fisher, plus a bassist and violinist, but oddly no
formal percussion. A few slow-burn, countrified openers ensued, driven
by her pure, sugary lilting vocals, now a little
richer and more resonant with age, with “Swoon” an early highlight,
embellished both by some haunting violin and Tanya’s swooping,
high-octave warblings. A spooky “Low Red Moon” was flesh-creepingly
good, Tanya whispering the verses and giving this old Belly
number the feel of a spaghetti Western murder soundtrack. By now she
was mining her old bands’ material; a moody, gothy “Dusted” was an odd
gallop when powered by Dean’s frantic acoustic strumming rather than
drums, “Honeychain” was lovely, and the subsequent
“Slow Dog” was a rushing, euphoric delight and the highlight of the
set. Closer “Not Too Soon”, Tanya’s poppiest Muses moment, was a little
subdued and understated after “Slow Dog” but nonetheless featured some
fine vocal interplay between Tanya and guest
vocalist Laura Kidd, and was a fine way to end a surprisingly splendid
support set.
So,
what could little step-sis do to match up? We headed into the
uncomfortably hot crowd, stage right, for Throwing Muses entrance at
9.45, bassist Bernard Georges already advising, “make sure you
drink lots to hydrate!” and the waif-like Kristin remarking, “its’
really hot… and we’ve not even started!” The set was initially drawn
from last year’s sprawling, intertwining 32-track album “Purgatory”/
“Paradise”, which I confess I’ve really not put the
work in to get to know well, but which featured copious amounts of the
usual Muses trademarks of creepy mood-music, challenging and
confrontational vignettes of noise, and odd lyrical stories emerging
like little animals from Kristin’s fragile and febrile
yet fertile psyche. Delivered by an intense, stock-still and wild-eyed
Kristin in her harsh, dissonant rasp of a voice, variously sounding
vengeful and disgusted, the new material was nevertheless more coherent
and conventional, often without the weird backwards
rhythms and off-kilter time signatures of “classic” Muses material.
Some “interesting” between-band banter as well, with Kristin, rather
tellingly, admonishing Bernard, “don’t tune! I didn’t tune!”, and lots
of talk about “ass-towels” (!).
Things
got really interesting, however, when Tanya wandered on, unannounced,
40 minutes in, for a creepy “You Cage”, then the storm clouds parted and
the sun shone through for a beautiful “Red Shoes”,
followed by the jagged guitar of “Devil’s Roof”. “Green Eyes”, sung by
Tanya in a haunting, skin-crawling delivery, featured some brilliant
backwards drumming from the excellent David Narcizo, then the
cacophonous, chugging steam train wall of noise that is
“Say Goodbye” closed out the set with the best number of the night, a
soaring, searing rendition which transported me back to those 80’s/ 90’s
Bierkeller nights, when the Muses were just about the most visceral,
incendiary “live” experience on the planet.
Wonderful stuff.
Final
encore “Pearl” was a stark, austere end to tonight’s marvellous
performance, after which a genuinely humbled Kristin remarked, “thank
you SO much,” to the devotional audience. No no Kristin,
thank you. Really, thank you! Set-lists grabbed, we hit the road bubbling. This was all we’d hoped – and more!
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