Before tonight, I thought I was a big fan of Throwing Muses, having seemingly played constantly The Real Ramona in the early 90's, and between us, Ali and I reckoned we had most of their albums. I'll explain that statement later. I was definitely a big fan of the lovely Tanya Donelly when she went on to form Belly, so was really looking forward to the gig, especially as it was on the doorstep in Holmfirth. They played here 3 years ago according to the merch guy but must have missed that night.
Tanya Donelly opened the evening as the support act, and was joined on stage by 2 guys playing electric guitar and cello respectively, while she played her Gibson SG. Not sure why didn't she have a drummer with her, or at least borrow the Muses one?
Didn't recognise the first few songs, but eventually she went into Belly songs Red, Dusted and Slow Dog, all of which were seemingly 3/4 versions of the originals but still has a hell of a set of lungs to belt them out. The closing track was the Muses song Not Too Soon which I was hoping the main act would be playing tonight, but I suppose as she was in Throwing Muses she was more than entitled. She invited 3 seemingly random audience members on stage to dance behind her for this final song which everyone enjoyed and that was her done.
Half an hour later, on came a bleached blonde stick thin figure which we eventually recognised as Kristin Hersh, joined by the rest of the Muses and they started with Sunray Venus, lead single from last album Purgatory/Paradise. The next couple of songs were also from the same album. For those who don't have it, it was released as a book with a 32 song cd, many of which are fragments of songs.
And that's where my recognition of songs ended, even when she was joined half way through the set by her half-sister Tanya Donelly. Does that mean she's in the Muses, or not ?
Where was Dizzy or Counting Backwards or Hate My Way ? In my opinion, they chose songs they wanted to play, rather than what the audience wanted.
Don't get me wrong, it was a perfectly good performance, and she still has the fantastic, raspy voice she's always had, and it barely seemed they have been away for so long, but for me it lacked a certain emotion and I don't think I was the only one in the audience feeling the same. The will they, won't they play another encore (they didn't) ended the night and we left, slightly underwhelmed and rueing their choice of setlist.
Keith & Ali
@kjsmith4082
