Finally.<\/p>\n
After a dozen long years, the incredibly influential alt-rock act Throwing Muses<\/a> made its long overdue return to the Bay Area on Friday (April 17) and played its first local show since a 2014 Noise Pop Festival date at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.<\/p>\n Fans filled The Chapel in San Francisco to capacity for the band\u2019s highly anticipated return, cheering on iconic singer-songwriter-guitarist Kristin Hersh<\/a> and her latest touring version of the Muses \u2014 Fred Abong on drums, Hersh\u2019s son Dylan on bass and \u201cCello\u201d Pete Harvey on, well, you can probably guess \u2014 as they rocked through songs both old and new.<\/p>\n Usually with a band of the Muses\u2019<\/a> stature \u2014 one that came to fame decades ago and released of one classic platter after another in the \u201980s and \u201990s \u2014 it\u2019s the former that matters most. Yet, there\u2019s been such acclaim around the group\u2019s comeback album \u2014 \u201cMoonlight Concessions,\u201d which was truly one of the best records of 2025 \u2014 that the new material was as equally important a drawing card as the fan favorites.<\/p>\n Taking the stage just after 10 p.m., Throwing Muses<\/a> immediately set the scene with a somber, meditative take on the new album\u2019s \u201cTheremini\u201d before cranking it up several notches with a double shot of \u201cSunray Venus\u201d and \u201cDark Blue,\u201d which hail from the group\u2019s previous two outings \u2014 2013\u2019s \u201cPurgatory\/Paradise\u201d and 2020\u2019s \u201cSun Racket,\u201d respectively.<\/p>\n We\u2019d then get the night\u2019s first \u201coldie\u201d \u2014 which I\u2019m defining as pre-2000s \u2014 as Hersh nudged \u201cBea\u201d awake to the delight of longtime fans in attendance. It sounded just as intense and deceivingly helter-skelter as when people first heard it on 1989\u2019s powerful \u201cHunkpapa,\u201d eschewing the regular sonic templates of the era and showcasing why Throwing Muses were so influential in leading both listeners and future-millionaire musicians into the alt-rock explosion of the early \u201990s.<\/p>\n Despite fighting a cold on this night, Hersh was her regular force of nature on the microphone, smashing out the lyrics in a fashion that comes across as if she needs to propel the words from her body. She uses her guitar lines to snake-charm the words, holding everything together and creating brief respites of peace amid the chaos.<\/p>\n The band followed up \u201cBea\u201d with another striking blast from the past, \u201cColder,\u201d delivering chills down the spine as Hersh again conjured up the stark, haunting lines from this opening track to 1988\u2019s \u201cHouse Tornado.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFire came from my mouth, is pushing me around \/ And I\u2019m not loving and I\u2019m not hating \/ I\u2019m not creating \/ I\u2019m losing my friends and my young dreams\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019d get a brief break from the lyrical intensity with \u201cHim Dancing,\u201d which hails from 1991\u2019s \u201cThe Real Ramona\u201d and showcases Throwing Muses\u2019<\/a> rarely seen poppier side. (But the tune runs barely over a minute in length, so you better pay attention or you\u2019ll miss it.)<\/p>\n Hersh was all business for most of the night, zooming from one song to the next without saying much more than a quick \u201cthank you\u201d to the crowd. She\u2019d finally utter her full sentences to introduce the oldest song in the mix \u2014 \u201cSoap and Water\u201d from the 1987 EP\/mini-album \u201cThe Fat Skier.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI wrote this song when I was 15,\u201d explained Hersh, who is also an accomplished solo artist, author and the leader of another rock band called 50 Foot Wave. \u201cSo the only way we can play it at all is to play it as fast as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n Abong then started blazing away on the drums, leading Hersh to add, with her superb comic timing, \u201cNot that fast.\u201d<\/p>\n The whole band sounded terrific, which was great to witness since I was a bit concerned about how much I would miss bassist Bernard Georges and drummer David Narcizo \u2014 who with Hersh formed the classic \u201990s trio version of Throwing Muses. My concerns were deepest around Narcizo, a brilliant drummer who, among other things, eschews the use of cymbals in fashioning a playing style that sounds like nobody else. I\u2019d rank him in my Top 5 favorite drummers of all time.<\/p>\n Yet, Abong and Hersh\u2019s son Dylan did a fine job filling in for Narcizo and Georges, who did record on \u201cMoonlight Concessions\u201d but decided to skip this year\u2019s road show. And Cello Pete, who has collaborated with Hersh for years, added much to the proceedings, with his lush string work providing an important counterbalance to Hersh\u2019s jagged guitar lines.<\/p>\n Closing up the main set with a double shot of \u201cMoonlight Concessions\u201d tracks \u2014 \u201cSally\u2019s Beauty\u201d and the album\u2019s title track \u2014 Throwing Muses took the evening to a higher level as it returned to roar through an encore of the \u201990s favorites \u201cShark\u201d and \u201cBright Yellow Gun.\u201d<\/p>\n Those who missed this great show still have a few more chances to see Throwing Muses on the band\u2019s long-awaited return to Northern California. Throwing Muses also play April 18 at Moe\u2019s Alley in Santa Cruz (marking the first time the band has played \u201cSurf City\u201d in more than 30 years), April 19 at Harlow\u2019s in Sacramento and then return for another date at The Chapel in San Francisco on April 20. For tickets and information on all shows, visit kristinhersh.com\/tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n Setlist:
1. \u201cTheremini\u201d
2. \u201cSunray Venus\u201d
3. \u201cDark Blue\u201d
4. \u201cBea\u201d
5. \u201cBywater\u201d
6. \u201cSlippershell\u201d
7. \u201cColder\u201d
8. \u201cStatic\u201d
9. \u201cHim Dancing\u201d
10. \u201cDrugstore Drastic\u201d
11. \u201cLazy Eye\u201d
12. \u201cSummer of Love\u201d
13. \u201cKay Catherine\u201d
14. \u201cOpiates\u201d
15. \u201cSoap and Water\u201d
16. \u201cSouth Coast\u201d
17. \u201cAlbatross\u201d
18. \u201cCounting Backwards\u201d
19. \u201cBo Diddley Bridge\u201d
20. \u201cSally\u2019s Beauty\u201d
21. \u201cMoonlight Concessions\u201d
Encore:
22. \u201cShark\u201d
23. \u201cBright Yellow Gun\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finally. After a dozen long years, the incredibly influential alt-rock act Throwing Muses made its long overdue return…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[184,7,2644,1533,181,330,3743,395,8257,8258,101,396,103,102,1498,3234,104,106,105,94685,200,420,77],"class_list":{"0":"post-274633","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-concerts","11":"tag-keywee","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-nightlife","15":"tag-peninsula","16":"tag-pop-music","17":"tag-rock-music","18":"tag-san-francisco","19":"tag-san-francisco-county","20":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","21":"tag-san-francisco-news","22":"tag-santa-cruz","23":"tag-santa-cruz-county","24":"tag-sf","25":"tag-sf-headlines","26":"tag-sf-news","27":"tag-social-alert","28":"tag-south-bay","29":"tag-things-to-do","30":"tag-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}