Gig review: Kristin Hersh Electric Trio at The Crescent, York

With Covid having put a dent in touring plans for recent Muses album Sun Racket, tonight Hersh makes up for lost time with a set that dives deeply into it and her last solo record Possible Dust Clouds.

Though some of her solo work may be in acoustic vein, tonight is all about intense, glowering rock. Having favoured the power trio format ever since co-vocalist Tanya Donelly departed Throwing Muses back in the early 90s, Hersh is a master of this setting and her stark, rhythmic guitar riffing drives the dynamics as her Electric Trio roam freely and widely through her back catalogue.

Dextrous bassist Fred Abong, (himself an ex-Throwing Muse, who also opens the show with an acoustic solo set) and powerhouse drummer Rob Ahlers from 50FootWave, know exactly when to groove and when to let rip. Indeed they’re so in tune as a band that bassist and drummer swap instruments during the encores just because they can.

Hersh’s voice, gloriously weathered and gnarly, may have to compete with Ahlers’s exuberant drum fills but packs more than enough force to cut through. Her songs’ jagged edges conceal hooks that lodge in the ear, like the melodic Bywater and Muses classic Bright Yellow Gun, while the powerful mood swings of Bo Diddley Bridge from the last Muses album and the churning riffs of Staring Into The Sun from 50FootWave hit hard.

Certainly it brings to mind all the best bits of 90s alt-rock – but after all, she pretty much invented its musical vocabulary and it’s definitely no mere nostalgia trip.

Kristin Hersh’s uncompromising, personal slant on rock music remains an undiminished force.