I saw the video for Your Ghost back in 1994 on the Chart Show and I was hooked. Hips and Makers was one of the first tapes I actually bought with Real Money and it remains one of my favourite albums of all time and is (along with Tori Amos - Cornflake Girl came out about the same time) the main reason I got into listening to female singer-songwriters.
So forgive me if I'm a little over-excited about the fact that she is playing in Bristol, of all places! I couldn't be happier if Ani DiFranco turned up next week! Yes, Throwing Muses were great too, but I always felt that it was only in her solo material that Kristin's raw emotion and slight madness really shone.
I am slightly disappointed that the man on the door pays little attention to the number 1 on my ticket - Number 1 at the first gig of the tour! Number 1! Come on! How keen am I? Of course this talk is just sad and perhaps a little bit desperate.
We are back on the boat and there is some strange beats and strings music going on. The place is packed, it's easier just to hang back and buy a drink, cursing the low ceiling that turns sound into a muffled blur when you're at the bar. By the time I fight my way forwards, they are on the last song and all I see is a man and a woman get up and leave, one with cello, the other with vilin. There goes The McCarricks, I think and decide to stay put since I'm now in a good position for the main attraction.
I mean okay, it's very exciting seeing Ms Hersh for the first time and looking around I notice that I'm not the only late 20s/early 30s bloke who thinks the same. She is joined on stage by the support band (as string section, of course) and the first two songs - Wild Vanilla and Under The Gun - are marred slightly while the soundman finds his ears.
They are thrown at him by an angry young man who seems to think that we all want to hear him hurling abuse from what is possibly the worst place in the Thekla to stand in terms of sound quality. Language and rudeness aside, he does have a point as I was struggling to hear Kristin's voice and she expertly puts him in his place then gets on with the gig. (True to the nature of a place like this, the bouncers try to eject him for having an opinion, but common sense and possible overcrowding prevail).
The set is predominantly songs off the new album, but I am pleased to hear a couple from Sunny Border Blue (Your Dirty Answer and Listerine), which is another album that I love. A lot of muttered yay I love this one's erupt as Kristin launches into Gazebo Tree from Strange Angels. Although it is plagued with feedback problems, this is clearly a crowd favourite and gets the biggest cheer of the night as we all try to prove who is the biggest Kristin fan. She also plays Ether from The Grotto and concludes with White Bikini Sand an old classic from Throwing Muses album Limbo.
On a few of the songs, Kristin apologises for her voice, her band, the fact that she is teaching the McCarricks songs as they go along but we don't really care. We just want her to sing. On stage she is as gentle and slightly mad looking as her music suggests, one second singing sweetly, the next roaring into your head with a passion that is rare to see, especially in one who has been in this business for so long.
There is nothing from Hips and Makers sadly, but otherwise it's all good, the new album is a great step forward from the last two, which I always felt were somewhat lacking in songs that make me want to cry / break things. It is stark yet rich, heartfelt and emotional music and Kristin's voice, is more gravelly these days than ever. In The Thin Man, the refrain 'in the ozone snow', reveals the frailty and beauty of Kristin's voice more than any of her other songs tonight. The room goes deathly quiet and the sound is perfect.
Sound problems and loud people aside, it's a great gig albeit through rose-tinted misty eyes. There is some regular club night that forces it all to end very early and Kristin is only allowed one encore. She sings Poor Wayfaring Stranger, a re-working of an old American folk song.
We linger for a while, mocking the two people on the dancefloor, going crazy for some electro-sludge and bemoaning the lack of a longer encore. For the first night of the tour it has been a great night and I wonder if there's anywhere close I can catch Kristin again before she goes home.
