This was my first visit to St John's On Bethnal Green even though I've spent my entire life regularly passing it by or in the old days using the (at times rather dangerous) public toilets that now sit derelict backing onto the church.
I have to say it is a fine, if rather austere Protestant church that rather wonderfully signalled they were about to open the doors by ringing the church bell for 5 minutes which was a cool touch.
On arriving inside, I had a quick chat with the vicar as I wanted to know which St John the church was dedicated to - The Baptist or The Theologian? It turned out to be the latter, which meant this was the second place dedicated to him I'd visited in about a month, the other one being the monastery in Zheman in Bulgaria. But unlike the monastery, which was full of imagery of Goats and a fine 12th century chapel, all the artwork on display in the church was of the Calvary Cross and the crucifixion, as well as a huge red marble Jesus altarpiece.
This is the first time I have seen Kristin Hersh play a solo show since Throwing Muses split up. So I didn't quite know what to expect. Apart from most of the audience talking about what an adventure it was to go into the crypt to find the loos, several people seemed to be very excited before she even came on.
So having sat down at the very cool red velvet-covered seat, Kristin, With the Hymn board showing, said she would be singing numbers 433, 443, 388 and 345. Instead, she opened with Bright, with her deep, throaty vocals carrying nicely across the church as she strummed at her guitar. The audience were rapt.
City Of The Dead seemed to me to have extra resonance being sung about 30 or 40 yards away from the site of the World War 2 tragedy at the entrance to Bethnal Green Tube where 178 people had died trying to get into the shelter including one of my grandmother's friends. While lyrically it may have not been about that sort of death it still worked perfectly in this setting.
Kristin then told us we should hate the next song as it was new and apparently everyone hates all her new songs. Which means I ought to rewrite the good review I gave her other project Bath White earlier this year. However, Mississippi Kite worked both as a poem and a song and had a dark and slightly disturbed feel to it but went down really well. I think Your Dirty Answer was the first time I noticed where Kirstin was swearing quite unapologetically at times which is unlike most acts I've seen perform in churches over the years.
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Broke and Static seemed to make plain the theme of many of the songs of being a bit down on your luck and love not quite working out how it should. She delivered her guitar part with a slow strum to help put careful emphasis on certain lyrics to make them hit home.
For some reason in my notes by Detox I have Gazpacho in brackets and can't think why I'd have added that. Maybe it helps with the detox?
Your Ghost easily got the biggest cheers and was about the only real sing-along of the evening. It needed the full choral treatment though to really shine but still it sounded great. Kirstin was then reciting a poem and singing about her darkest flame and it wasn't the candles burning behind her.
We then get about the most religious poem and song of the evening, Between Piety & Desire, which really seemed perfect for the austere surroundings. The lyrical talk of Junkies reminded me of the days when the steps of this church would see the Meth drinkers slowly sipping on their poison while haranguing passers-by.
Static crackled along nicely. I'm not sure what the next poem was other than being about things she misses. We then got to hear about the Sno Cat. Before Kristin gave us her poem about Flooding that became a song on the same subject and what it did to New Orleans and had a real sense of sadness about it.
She closed with a cover of the Poor Wayfaring Stranger who may or may not of been among us. Either way the crowd were not letting her go without an encore and she came back soon enough.
The encore opened with her thanking us all before (if Setlist.fm is correct and I'm not sure it is) she played Freesia, which seemed to go down well and led nicely into The Cuckoo that had a good ringing sound to it. She then finished with You Cage and strangely I didn't at all feel like I was in a cage, but either way it was a good song to finish with and she left to sustained applause. If Kristin's current tour gets close to you she is well worth seeing, whatever the surroundings.
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