Live Review: Kristin Hersh, Anne Of The Wolves

Anne Of The Wolves' vocalist Bek Chapman is without her bandmates so she is flying solo on electric piano tonight. Chapman singlehandedly silences the small crowd with sparse, melancholy chords and the elegant purity of her voice. Folksy ethereal opener See Mary Run is followed by a murder ballad that has flourishes of Tori Amos-styled drama. Anne Of The Wolves' set eventually slides into jazzy swing with tunes like Rainmaker hitting brighter notes while still showcasing Chapman's flair for the dramatic.

It's finally time to bask in the glow of the wonderfully amazing Kristin Hersh who hovers high above us once she takes her place on a tall chair. The idea of Hersh accompanying herself on just a guitar may seem like a mellow prospect, but, as soon as she kicks off with the seething angst of Your Dirty Answer, the rage and attitude is still there even if the familiar blast of angular guitar riffs is somewhat blunted. Age has bestowed a rough-edged rasp to Hersh's typically howling vocals. In between songs, Hersh reads humorous passages from her autobiographical book Rat Girl. In this way she connects the dots between her own life experiences and their relationship to the abstract lyrical poetry of her songs. The approach on this tour reflects Hersh's recent independently released albums, which come with little books filled with artwork and essays that are intended to enhance the listening experience. Working from a setlist culled from material mainly released after the year 2000, Hersh deals gems such as Sno Cat, White Suckers, Mississippi Kite, Flooding and Sunray Venus. 

Surprisingly, this is not a showcase of the recent Throwing Muses album Purgatory/Paradise, which is conspicuously on sale at the merch. However Hersh does include her reflections on NYC in Freesia and tells us, rather whimsically, about a store in New York that only sold parrots that were not kept in cages and would inevitably fly free when people entered or left the store. An evocative version of Poor Wayfaring Stranger hits strong emotional chords with the crowd and we soon find ourselves demanding an encore. Hersh obliges with the accessible Cottonmouth and Your Ghost before rattling the bars with You Cage. Hersh has been around since the '80s, served as inspiration to Kurt Cobain and continues to just get better.