Waiting in a cosy jazz club in North London were a bunch of uber fans. Uber technological fans that picked up on a tweet about a free secret gig and consequently made their way down to be so close to their idol they could touch her. Who else could inspire this much admiration and love from complete strangers other than Kristin Hersh.
The frontwoman of the seminal post punk band Throwing Muses is releasing her latest album Crooked in book form complete with downloads, commentary videos and demos. Hersh knows how to please her fans.
Having only been a fan of Hersh's for about the last couple of months I felt an imposter. I haven't followed her for the whole of her 20 year career or spent hours on end devouring her music. I have a lot to catch up on but I'm ready for the challenge.
Her husband Billy O'Connell introduced her on stage and joked that although their is no cd with the book you could buy the book and the CD-R's they were selling and put the CD-R in the book (this information will make more sense later on).
Kristin made her way through the crowd and like all iconic female singer she was tiny (think PJ Harvey and Amy Winehouse). I think she just about reached my shoulder but her diminitive size doubled when she played the opening chords of 'Mississppi Kite'.
Although shy Hersh knows how to capture a crowd's attention; going from one great song to another and occasionally peppering her set with wry musings on life and stories about school friends with weird skin conditions.
After the gig I had to get a book and meet Kristin so I queued up and bought a book from her husband. They didn't have any except for the open one on the stage so I took that one (again information will be relevenat later).
Kristin came over and signed my book and also wrote a little cute curly design in it that just made me want to hug her. I wanted to have a long conversation but as always in those situations my brain goes dead and I just try to get myself out of the situation as quickly as possible.
On the tube home looking through my book a CD-R fell out (see I wasn't just rambling, those details were there for a reason) and I realised I had taken the book that her husband put the CD-R in.
Essentially this post is just me apologising for accidentally stealing Kristin's CD. So Kristin if you're reading this I'm sorry but if it makes a difference I loved your set.
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