Live Review: Kristin Hersh, Sasha March

The Grace Emily has a strange way of making you feel as if your sitting at home witnessing a performance from the comfort of your own lounge room. Bodies slowly move in and take territory on the couches. With the fire crackling in the back, Sasha March gracefully steps to the stage and over the quiet hum of bar banter begins to woo the crowd with her incredible vocal abilities. The voice of this Adelaide woman floats through the air and tantalises patrons milling in the front bar and you catch them wandering in to find out who has pricked their aural senses. March almost takes the crowd by hand to walk though her folk-inspired love songs, including the track, Sleeping Sound, off her debut EP.

The stage area begins to fill with fans, waiting with pure excitement as main attraction Kristen Hersh humbly advances across the stage, softly announcing she's there with a “Hey,” like she's greeting an old friend, and begins to travel her way through the performance. Slowly and methodically, with the charm of a snake, her head weaves from side to side, seeming to almost hypnotise everybody gathered in front of her; within the first song the crowd is in the palm of her hand. The croak in her voice almost seems to make the words jump and fight each other as they make their way into the evening air. After the first two songs, our performer takes a book in hand, her teenage diary, and as if to tie each section of songs together recites stories every few songs. The tales of her youth bring out a comical side to the performer and the way it's articulated makes you feel you're listening to an R-rated Disney audio book.

This show is in support of the latest release from her band Throwing Muses, Purgatory/Paradise, which has been released as a book and record package, Hersh announces to the crowd before leading into her last few songs. As she performs Your Ghost, it seems to be the only point in the evening the crowd is able to break its trance and sing along. Then just as subtly as she had taken to the stage Hersh exhales, “Thanks Sasha and thank you, goodnight,” causing an explosion of applause from every person in the room.