2014
in a room in a house in a dream
maura @ 4:43 pm
I’m reading a book called “Facing the Other Way” about the history of the record label 4AD, and looking through the photos made me realize that I never wrote about the Throwing Muses show we went to last March. March! Can’t believe it’s already been that long. In some ways it’s kind of a boring thing to write about. I mean, it was terrific, full stop. Plus they’ve continued on tour and lots of other people have written about the shows in much better detail than I will here, especially now that I’m 4 months out.
But seriously: amazing. Tanya Donelly opened with a short set of new stuff and old stuff. The new stuff was okay — I have to admit that I’ve lost track of her in the post-Belly years. And the old stuff — Belly as well as some Throwing Muses — was delightful. As I mentioned back when I wrote about the Amor de Dias show we saw in March, Sam from Magnetic Fields played bass (or was it cello?) for Tanya Donelly, which was fun. I guess he’s the itinerant strings person for bands of a certain age playing live in NYC.
Part two of the show was Throwing Muses in its current lineup — Kristin Hersh, David Narcizo, Bernard Georges — playing entirely new songs from their most recent record (released as a book + CD) Purgatory/Paradise. The new stuff is phenomenal if dark, and it was pretty powerful to see it live. I keep telling people that it’s a concept album even though that sounds weird and old people prog rock, but it really is, at least in the sense that it all hangs together as a complete record to listen to start to finish. But the songs worked well live, too, especially beginning and ending this part of the show with “Glass Cats.”
Part three was old school Throwing Muses in which Tanya Donelly came back up on stage. There’s no way, of course, that they could ever play everything you want to hear, but I was super happy with the songs they did choose, especially “Green,” which I’m not sure I’ve heard live before, and “Flying,” which was my favorite track on their 2003 Throwing Muses album.
Looking back at that Amor de Dias post I’m reminded that I got all nerdy when Purgatory/Paradise was released. I got the record for xmas but didn’t end up even listening to it until January, because I made myself listen to every Throwing Muses EP and LP in order of their release before I could listen to the new record. I was also happily surprised to see that they thanked every Strange Angel by name in the record’s book — because there I am!
