It’s a foggy and cold Monday night at Oran Mor, the Guillemots are hogging the larger venue upstairs but actually this is not quite full – pity really as after some 30 years as a band, the Muses, as they were originally monikered until some bloke joined the band, still have it.
It’s probably not quite appropriate to say they were “acceptable in the 80s” but as the first American band signed to 4AD (subsequent signings the Pixies eventually stole their thunder a little), they have a bit of history (the classic self-titled debut album was not even released in the US).
Initially a four piece, there have been a few line-up changes over the years, the main constant being singer/songwriter/guitarist Kristin Hersh, in her time a bit of a poster-girl for female angst and mental health issues (steady on Betty, that’s perhaps a bit harsh, or Hersh).
The current line-up, reunited after several periods of hiatus cause by Hersh’s solo career among other things, are currently touring Europe to promote the recent “Anthology” disc which summaries their career, with extracts from their numerous albums – around 8 or 9 since 1986.
It was a young and I should say very nubile Betty who witnessed Throwing Muses probably first, or first biggish, show in Glasgow around 1987 in the QMU, supported by none other than The Sundays. (where are they now?)
It says a lot about Hersh and her cohorts that she’s still here, doing her own fairly unique thing, after all these time. The years however have not been especially kind to most of the audience, I’d expected quite a few intense Sylvia Plath-esque middle-aged women but it was 60-70% middle-aged and visibly balding men, possible some of them attracted by the possibility that Kristin’s slightly more glamorous half sister Tanya Donnelly, who was in the band for the first few albums then went off to have a UK number 1 album with Belly (King was the record but who really remembers now, ah the indie wars…) might be in the line-up. When asked by one nostalgic punter “where’s Tanya?”, Hersh replied rather tartly “I sold her” – so that’s that then.
The set-up, as it has been for some time, is a very tight three piece, long time band members Bernard Gorges and David Narcizo on bass and drums respectively, with no more frills than just a few effects pedals from Hersh. The setlist is taken from throughout their long career, and they play them, one after the other, something like 19 or 20 songs (including the encores) in less than 90 minutes.
The biggest comparison in terms of sound and technique would be REM, the guitar style, the chords and the time changes reference the first couple of REM albums and take it on from there.
Hersh is an unlikely guitar hero and plays very deliberately, no posing or acting up, and yet the variety of sounds and riffs she produces is amazing – quite a few (shortish) solos as well. Along with bass and drums it’s an immense sound at times, mixed well for this venue but could have sounded a lot better amped up even more in a bigger venue, i.e. one that was not a glorified basement. Hersh is also the possessor of a unique voice, at times sweet and at other times positively demonic. Her intense yeowl is something that Courtney Love definitely took notes on, and although a different kind of artist, bears comparison with Patti Smith for her intense and singular vision and lyrics.
So what did they play? I did not recognise everything, but there were certainly a smattering from the debut, ‘Hate My Way’ being probably the highlight, commented on by Hersh that it “took 25 years to be able to smile” when playing it when one wag shouted “you weren’t smiling when you wrote it”. A kind of hymn to alienated, potentially self-harming teens, again I suspect Mr Cobain may have been taking notes – “I hate myself and want to die”, anyone?
Things reached a climax with songs such as ‘Pearl’, ‘Say Goodbye’ and ‘Vicky’s Box’, Hersh alternating between little girl lost and Regan in the Exorcist, scary but effective. Two encores, the second after the lights were turned on and then off again, i.e. the venue had not really planned for two, and last song ‘White Kiwisan Bikini’, which sounded initially as if it could be a horribly misjudged cover of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” was pitched at a lower pace to basically lull the audience back into a “time to go home” mode. There was real long time appreciation shown by the audience, and although not very light on their feet for jumping around, there was extensive applause after many of the songs and a “Muses” chant went up between the encores.
So they can certainly still cut it and deserve a bit more recognition – though I personally have tended to overlook them a bit in the 24 or so years since I last saw them live.