Photos and review by Jennie Book
@jenniebookphotography

Throwing Muses hasn’t played LA or the Bay Area since 2014, but on April 21^st Kristin Hersh plus son Dylan on bass, Fred Abong on drums, and Pete Harvey on cello came to The Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles for the last stop on their North America tour that longtime fans really showed up for.

This is shaping up to be a good year for OG women musicians touring, with Hersh kicking things off, and then Liz Phair and Sleater-Kinney on a double bill in the fall. The effect of Throwing Muses and the original lineup with sisters Hersh and Tanya Donelly (who went on to Belly and The Breeders) can’t be underestimated as pioneers of the scene, with their sphere of influence extending to all the women of rock who followed in their footsteps.

The LA show gave us about 25 songs, and dipped in and out of their newest album Moonlight Confessions, which made it onto many top albums of 2025 lists and is incredibly solid. The night kicked off with “Theremini,” “Sunray Venus,” and “Dark Blue,” and then put us in a time machine back to “Bea” from 1989’s Hunkpapa, very much to the crowd’s delight. Other highlights included “Him Dancing,” a lighter, quicker track, and “Colder,” another blast from the past which the fans loved.

Hersh didn’t talk much during the night and let the music speak for itself, but the solidly Gen X crowd in the smallish venue didn’t seem to mind and was laser focused on her every move. Her son played a great bass, and her longtime collaborator/partner Abong did a fantastic job on drums, and cellist Harvey lent some auditory interest where a cello sometimes doesn’t roam.

The night wrapped with an encore of “Shark” and “Bright Yellow Gun,” both from albums born in the 1990s, an era the band’s fanbase is clearly eager to revisit and enjoy.

Throwing Muses has wrapped their North American tour, but gets on over to the UK in late September for a generous number of shows. All the latest on tickets and tour info can be found at www.kristinhersh.com.