Review: Iconic rock act wows fans during 1st Bay Area show in 12 years
Finally.
After a dozen long years, the incredibly influential alt-rock act Throwing Muses made its long overdue return to the Bay Area on Friday (April 17) and played its first local show since a 2014 Noise Pop Festival date at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.
Fans filled The Chapel in San Francisco to capacity for the band’s highly anticipated return, cheering on iconic singer-songwriter-guitarist Kristin Hersh and her latest touring version of the Muses — Fred Abong on drums, Hersh’s son Dylan on bass and “Cello” Pete Harvey on, well, you can probably guess — as they rocked through songs both old and new.
Usually with a band of the Muses’ stature — one that came to fame decades ago and released of one classic platter after another in the ’80s and ’90s — it’s the former that matters most. Yet, there’s been such acclaim around the group’s comeback album — “Moonlight Concessions,” which was truly one of the best records of 2025 — that the new material was as equally important a drawing card as the fan favorites.
Taking the stage just after 10 p.m., Throwing Muses immediately set the scene with a somber, meditative take on the new album’s “Theremini” before cranking it up several notches with a double shot of “Sunray Venus” and “Dark Blue,” which hail from the group’s previous two outings — 2013’s “Purgatory/Paradise” and 2020’s “Sun Racket,” respectively.
We’d then get the night’s first “oldie” — which I’m defining as pre-2000s — as Hersh nudged “Bea” awake to the delight of longtime fans in attendance. It sounded just as intense and deceivingly helter-skelter as when people first heard it on 1989’s powerful “Hunkpapa,” eschewing the regular sonic templates of the era and showcasing why Throwing Muses were so influential in leading both listeners and future-millionaire musicians into the alt-rock explosion of the early ’90s.
Despite fighting a cold on this night, Hersh was her regular force of nature on the microphone, smashing out the lyrics in a fashion that comes across as if she needs to propel the words from her body. She uses her guitar lines to snake-charm the words, holding everything together and creating brief respites of peace amid the chaos.
The band followed up “Bea” with another striking blast from the past, “Colder,” delivering chills down the spine as Hersh again conjured up the stark, haunting lines from this opening track to 1988’s “House Tornado.”
“Fire came from my mouth, is pushing me around / And I’m not loving and I’m not hating / I’m not creating / I’m losing my friends and my young dreams”
We’d get a brief break from the lyrical intensity with “Him Dancing,” which hails from 1991’s “The Real Ramona” and showcases Throwing Muses’ rarely seen poppier side. (But the tune runs barely over a minute in length, so you better pay attention or you’ll miss it.)
Hersh was all business for most of the night, zooming from one song to the next without saying much more than a quick “thank you” to the crowd. She’d finally utter her full sentences to introduce the oldest song in the mix — “Soap and Water” from the 1987 EP/mini-album “The Fat Skier.”
“I wrote this song when I was 15,” explained Hersh, who is also an accomplished solo artist, author and the leader of another rock band called 50 Foot Wave. “So the only way we can play it at all is to play it as fast as we can.”
Abong then started blazing away on the drums, leading Hersh to add, with her superb comic timing, “Not that fast.”
The whole band sounded terrific, which was great to witness since I was a bit concerned about how much I would miss bassist Bernard Georges and drummer David Narcizo — who with Hersh formed the classic ’90s trio version of Throwing Muses. My concerns were deepest around Narcizo, a brilliant drummer who, among other things, eschews the use of cymbals in fashioning a playing style that sounds like nobody else. I’d rank him in my Top 5 favorite drummers of all time.
Yet, Abong and Hersh’s son Dylan did a fine job filling in for Narcizo and Georges, who did record on “Moonlight Concessions” but decided to skip this year’s road show. And Cello Pete, who has collaborated with Hersh for years, added much to the proceedings, with his lush string work providing an important counterbalance to Hersh’s jagged guitar lines.
Closing up the main set with a double shot of “Moonlight Concessions” tracks — “Sally’s Beauty” and the album’s title track — Throwing Muses took the evening to a higher level as it returned to roar through an encore of the ’90s favorites “Shark” and “Bright Yellow Gun.”
Those who missed this great show still have a few more chances to see Throwing Muses on the band’s long-awaited return to Northern California. Throwing Muses also play April 18 at Moe's Alley in Santa Cruz (marking the first time the band has played "Surf City" in more than 30 years), April 19 at Harlow's in Sacramento and then return for another date at The Chapel in San Francisco on April 20. For tickets and information on all shows, visit kristinhersh.com/tour.
Setlist:
1. “Theremini”
2. “Sunray Venus”
3. “Dark Blue”
4. “Bea”
5. “Bywater”
6. “Slippershell”
7. “Colder”
8. “Static”
9. “Him Dancing”
10. “Drugstore Drastic”
11. “Lazy Eye”
12. “Summer of Love”
13. “Kay Catherine”
14. “Opiates”
15. “Soap and Water”
16. “South Coast”
17. “Albatross”
18. “Counting Backwards”
19. “Bo Diddley Bridge”
20. “Sally’s Beauty”
21. “Moonlight Concessions”
Encore:
22. “Shark”
23. “Bright Yellow Gun”
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This story was originally published April 18, 2026 at 12:06 PM.