KRISTIN HERSH
Acapela Studios, Pentyrch, nr. Cardiff - 21st October 2026
Support: Tom Crow
"Songs can tell the future, and they can tell the past, but they can't tell the difference."
So says Kristin Hersh, whose twisted poetry has confused, intrigued, scared and comforted me for getting close to 40 years now. She is an absolute one-off, as anyone who knows her work will attest to. Quite why I'd only ever seen her twice before this show is beyond me. The first time was when she was fronting Throwing Muses, supporting R.E.M. in 1989, a performance that threw me so mercilessly into another realm, I've never quite gotten over it. The last time I caught her live, she had a backing band containing then members of Throwing Muses and 50FootWave. That was in 2007, and she was an absolute delight.
In October 2026, in the wonderful Acapela Studio just outside Cardiff, she was solo. Truly solo. Just Kristin, her guitars, and an audience who doesn't just love her, they 'get' her too. People it's not easy to find.
Before Kristin though, a last-minute support act was drafted in, Welsh singer-songwriter Tom Crow. I wasn't all that taken by him, but I have to give credit to his guitar playing - which was excellent - and his dedication to NHS staff. Thanks Tom! He also reminded us that it was 60 years to the day of the Aberfan disaster, and paid tribute to those who survived and all those who have overcome tragedy against the odds. I felt bad about not being terribly into his music as he is clearly a lovely genuine bloke.
Kristin Hersh is also genuine, though a completely different character. This setting made the whole thing feel so warm, despite the pouring rain outside, and Kristin' set felt very much like she was playing in our homes, by a crackling open fire. Between songs, she regaled us with tales of country mice in her kitchen cupboards, cockroaches on her kitchen floor, and a dead goldfish called Freddie Mercury in her toilet.
She sang songs about her kids playing with Amish girls, staying out late playing basketball with her brother, and a dead goldfish called Freddie Mercury in her toilet...
The set consisted of solo tracks old, new and inbetween, as well as a couple surprise Throwing Muses tracks thrown in for good measure. Songs from new album 'Sugar On Blackstone' were, obviously, going to form the backbone of the show. Sundial, Dark Eyed Junco and Snow White Lies sounded gorgeous, despite being even more stripped back than the spectral album versions. Early solo song Teeth was a welcome inclusion, and from nowhere, mid-set, we got a new rendition of Your Ghost, the one Kristin Hersh song any non-acolyte is likely to have heard.
The goldfish-down-the-loo story was followed by its accompanying song Bywater, a highlight from Throwing Muses' 2020 album 'Sun Racket'; the cockroach song Palmeto was also included (palmeto is apparently what they call a cockroach in Hersh's current hometown New Orleans); while the story of her sons playing with Amish children was soundtracked by a new, as yet, unreleased song called Catching Fireflies.
There was also time for a surprise inclusion of obscure Throwing Muses b-side City Of The Dead, and a single-song encore, Cuckoo, a traditional Appalachian folk song that appeared on her debut solo album.
Outside, it rained throughout. Inside we were warm and snug in Kristin's charming company. The intimate nature of her show is exactly what you want on a cold October evening.
"Bit good that, wannit?" I said to the stranger sat beside me. "Spellbinding," he replied. He was right. (We then briefly swapped stories of seeing Throwing Muses - he in Cardiff a few months earlier, me in London 37 years ago!)
Terrible photography by TheRobster
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