Paradiso, Amsterdam
01/10/04
I know too much about 50 Foot Wave and Kristin Hersh to ever actually know what to write about them. Look around Stayfun, though, and you can sense the influence the music of Hersh has played on my life over the past seven or so years. So it was almost worrying that in the weeks leading up to this concert I just couldn’t find any enthusiasm for the band at all.
I like them. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve given their record a good review. You can even buy it (cheaply) here on the site. But as much fun as I have when I do actually listen to 50 Foot Wave, the reason it hasn’t made a massive impact on me this year is that I’m rarely in the mood to actually get the disc into the player. I start to pine for the acoustic Hersh, or maybe I just want to hear classic Muses. This band just always seemed too straightforward to really force me to listen to them. So it was with great surprise and a welcome relief to find that onstage, Hersh still has the power to make everything all right - as does the rest of the band actually.
After that first minute of extreme intensity, it becomes almost uncomfortable to look too closely into that icy, translucent stare that I’ve become so familiar with over the years. You have to see Hersh live to even comprehend it. Fortunate then that Bernard Georges on bass and Rob Ahlers on drums are also so hypnotic to watch - every parts of their bodies in motion in order to crank out that noise - sharing smiles between themselves whenever the music sparks the chemistry between them. This is what makes the 50 Foot Wave live experience so much better than on record. You can actually see the pleasure they’re taking from the music as well as giving, and it makes you realize why all involved are so desperate to make this aurally violent band work, when it would be just as easy for Hersh to tour the world, pulling Pampers out of her acoustic guitar’s case.
As for the songs, well they only do have 14 currently, so it’s not too tricky to guess what will be included in the setlist. Mainly every one is a ferocious blast. Hersh no longer sings it seems, but screams, and in a room filled with swirling, angry noise, this just makes perfect sense somehow. It doesn’t even feel worth singling out any song in particular because every single bar was played out with complete intensity by the trio.
There was the extra gift of ‘Your Ghost’ for a second encore of course. I wanted this badly. It feels like an audience is being punished if they aren’t given it to the end show. Weird then that it was almost the only disappoint of the evening, plodding along so safely compared to the other numbers, at least until it was injected with a small dose of desperation which perked it up midway.
Still, it all made for an impressive hour. The audience approved and left with a taste of the potential this lot still has to offer. Provided they go home and tell all their friends, by the time 50 Foot Wave roll around again next spring, they will hopefully find themselves playing in new company.
Steven McCarron
Photo: Throwing Music
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