Cats and Mice (Live)

Album Review

Ever since she memorably proclaimed "quiet is the new loud" during the testosterone-blaring '90s grunge fatigue, Kristin Hersh has done amazing work proving it in a fruitful solo career (when not busy with Throwing Muses or 50 Foot Wave). Armed with just an electric guitar, she's been harrowingly speaking forte voce for 16 years — her emotions rising as her delivery escalates from eerie whispers to hair-raising, teeth-spitting belting. Concurrent, deliberate picking, as if to ensure no strings were broken making this tune, gives way to hard staccato strumming as her storm gathers. And no place has this been clearer than her gigs, where, after funny, ingratiating chit-chat, she rivets audiences into silence so fast, no one even coughs. Though hardly humorless, this woman is not joking, as she makes clear from the start of this career-spanning February 9, 2009 18-song set, opening with the tormenting, blood-curdling 1800s murder ballad "Banks of the Ohio" off her 1998 genre workout Murder, Misery and Then Goodnight (move over, Johnny Cash and Nick Cave). The pristine sound of spiffy San Francisco Fillmore jazz mecca Yoshi's (an inspired booking) just adds to the shiver factor, where the more quietly she embarks on the likes of "Pearl," "Your Ghost," "Lemon Tree" (not the Peter, Paul & Mary 1962 number 35 hit), the colder the wind blows as you await the twister. Turn back, ye faint of heart. All else, who like whiskey straight and dark passions laid bare, press play and repeat. ~ Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover, Rovi