When: 7.30pm on Thursday 12 October 2023
Where: Hallé St Peter’s, 40 Blossom Street, Ancoats, Manchester, M4 6BF 

PLEASE NOTE: Due to exceptional demand, this show has been upgraded to St Michael’s sister church, Hallé St Peter’s, also in Ancoats. All other details are the same and original tickets remain valid. Extra tickets have now been released.

Please also note that there is no support act, with doors opening at 7.30pm and the show beginning at 8.15pm. This is an unreserved seated show.

We’re delighted to welcome Kristin Hersh back to Manchester.

Kristin Hersh’s new album Clear Pond Road is a cinematic road trip; a series of personal vignettes from a fiercely independent auteur, sitting plush with layers of all-consuming strings and mellotron. It’s a watershed moment in a career overflowing with creative firsts and inspirational thinking; an elegant piece of personal reportage, a home movie caught in time.

Previously, the juxtaposition of light and dark has been essential to the drama of Throwing Muses and 50FOOTWAVE, but this solo set is something of a departure; more inward looking, quieter but outspoken, underpinned by background noise for ambience and awkwardness.

‘Passion sounds less angry, more grateful, I think,’ Kristin muses, ‘sweeter, sadder. And somehow, no less alive… over car engines and rain in New England and whistling ducks and wind chimes in New Orleans, it all sounds wistful to me.’

Clear Pond Road is a life-affirming statement, a further part of the jigsaw, a very personal memoir, from street signs to snapshots; a late blossoming and coming-of-age from a true icon of independence. The record is both intimate yet expansive, written largely within the confines of Hersh’s home, making the proceedings ever more personal.

Referencing the album’s artwork, Kristin elaborates: ‘The street sign on the cover is one my youngest son and I found at a junk shop, we took it everywhere with us and now it watches over us in our kitchen, reminding us not to get too damaged, too fuzzy.’

It feels like a soundtrack, painting pictures with lyrics and melodies, sweeping right across the screen. Kristin affirms, ‘I did notice a cinematic quality, as if each song is a scene in a play. Which means it has a sad ending, which means it’s a tragedy.’ The songs are like staccato commentaries, short cuts from a long reaching narrative.

‘Few artists understand the intensity of living one’s art like Hersh’ – The Guardian

‘Kristin Hersh’s tough, instinctive wail, has been one of the greatest sounds in American underground rock for decades’ – Stereogum

‘A fearless rock innovator’ – New York Times

This show is a co-promotion with Please Please You and Brudenell Presents.

Age restriction: 14+. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Book tickets now.

Attend on: Facebook