Gig review: Throwing Muses at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds

Kristin Hersh is keeping things in the family. Touring with Throwing Muses for the first time since 2011 she’s joined by fiancé Fred Abong on drums, who doubles as the support act, and her eldest son Dylan on bass.

In addition there’s cellist Pete Harvey, who played on the recently released Moonlight Concessions. Their eleventh album in almost 40 years, it largely foregoes electric instrumentation for the brooding intensity that Nirvana brought to MTV Unplugged. All but one of its tracks is aired tonight, with ‘Theremini’ offering parched psychedelia and the elemental blues of ‘Summer Of Love’ finding resolution in, “life as it should have been”.

The minimal nature of these tracks, on which cello is often the lead instrument, threatens to be upended by Abong’s love of the cymbal. He spends the set alternately pulverising them and repairing them (“your life is held together by gaffer tape,” observes Hersh wryly). This is in sharp contrast to the cymbal eschewing style of founding member David Narcizo who, along with long-term bassist Bernard Georges, was unable to commit to touring.

Abong’s playing arguably makes more sense on some of the band’s older material, with ‘Bo Diddley Bridge’ and ‘Static’ being ferocious slices of grunge-rock.

Hersh’s compositions have always been more nuanced than any one genre, though, with the unexpected shifts in the folk-influenced ‘Colder’ and country-punk ‘Soap And Water’ retaining the power to surprise. ‘Bea’, meanwhile, has the build of Led Zeppelin and the snarling dynamics of Pixies.

They conclude the set with ‘Shark’ and ‘Bright Yellow Gun’, which are the closest they get to straightforward pop-rock. Striking a near-perfect balance between melody and noise, they hint at a parallel career in which the band achieved commercial success. In choosing the path less travelled, Hersh has nonetheless remained true to an artistic vision that continues to thrill.