Kristin Hersh – The Vic Theatre: March 20, 2025
Throwing Muse Kristin Hersh brought her solo show to The Old Vic, with the 100+ year old cinema in Devonport proving to be a perfect match for Hersh’s cinematic songs.
And while those lyrics can invoke moving images, the films they might inspire would most likely be more surreal than documentary, despite many of those lyrics taken directly from real life conversations, often overheard.
And so, instead of A Fish Named Wanda, we get one named Freddie (Mercury, of course). Things end badly for Freddie (yes, there’s a toilet involved), but other characters, such as the woman on the bus who claims to never leave the house, or the cake-baking mother of the girl who drove her car into Kristin’s house, are all worthy of a song or two.
In my conversation with Kristin about the new Throwing Muses album, she talks about writing songs on the beach, using snippets of overheard conversations in California and New Orleans.
And though tonight’s two sets are littered with Throwing Muses songs, we hear nothing from or about the new album (Moonlight Concessions) that’s just been released.
It’s fair to say that Kristin Hersh follows her own muse, sings the songs she wants, tells the stories how she remembers them and reads from her books when the mood strikes.
At approximately 8:15 on this autumn evening in Auckland, Kristin Hersh strode confidently onto the stage as, what looked like a full house, greeted her with a warm round of applause.
She was clearly among friends, and that confidence and sense of community resulted in 45 minutes and 10 songs beginning with Hersh finger-picking her acoustic guitar and finally singing the opening lines to Bright, from 2016’s Wyatt at the Coyote Palace which was released as both a book and an album.
Speaking of books, if its merch you were looking for then it was a choice of books and T-shirts, with Kristin’s son behind the merch table.
There were three readings from the books over the two sets…entertaining and revealing snippets about clouds of black flies, raising children on the road and “the future of songwriting”…the last from a new tome that Kristin is “not selling yet”.
But it’s not all about the songs and the lyrics…there’s that voice. Raspy, yet melodic…it’s a voice that draws the listener in and forces one to focus.
There are some artists who are only as good as the song they are singing and then there are those who can sing the phone book (remember those?) and still find meaning.
Kristin is one of those.
After a tribute to her friend Vic Chesnutt...there is a book and a song…we all take a break and reconvene for set two.
It’s more of the same, which is to say, more of Hersh’s unique take on life, love and the absurdities of everyday life.
She performs her “hit”, 1994’s Your Ghost along with deeper cuts like Sunray Venus, Static and Bo Diddley Bridge…possibly favouring Sun Racket, the 2020 Throwing Muses Album and Clear Pond Road, her 2023 solo outing.
Or possibly not.
Whatever Kristin Hersh decides to sing, I’m all ears, and to that end, I’ll probably go see her again tonight at The Tuning Fork. I suggest you do the same.
Marty Duda
Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Chris Zwaagdyk:
Kristin Hersh setlist:
Set 1:
- Bright
- Cottonmouth
- Kay Catherine
- Mississippi Kite
- City Of The Dead
- Eyeshine
- Teeth
- Gazebo Tree
- Flooding
- Panic Pure (Vic Chesnutt cover)
Set 2:
- Krait
- Ms Haha
- Reflections On The Motive Power
- Your Ghost
- Sunray Venus
- Me And My Charms
- Static
- Bywater
- Bo Diddley Bridge
- Palmetto
- The Cuckoo
- Your Dirty Answer
The solo tour – proudly presented by Plus1 with UnderTheRadar and 95bFM – includes Wellington, Christchurch and two Auckland dates, as follows:
Friday 21 March – The Tuning Fork, Auckland
Saturday 22 March – The Piano, Christchurch
Sunday 23 March – Old St Pauls, Wellington (with Jon Muq)
Tickets are on sale from plus1.co.nz
