Buffalo Rising Online

Nov 18th 2008, 2:13am By Thomas Stanford

Pretend, for a moment, that we were to play the word association game. As you know, the one and only rule is that you’re to blurt out the first word that comes to mind as soon as you hear the subject given.

Ready? And… “Influential Rock Icon”! Do you have your answer? Good. Now imagine having this person or group suddenly playing for you and 25 others in your living room…

It’s quite a striking thought, yes? Such was the case for local musician Michele Buono this past 23rd of September, when she hosted singer-songwriter Kristin Hersh in her home, enthralling a small, amorous crowd. A long-time and avid listener of Hersh since her days in the 90’s indie rock mainstay, Throwing Muses (and since with 50 Foot Wave), Buono learned through a fan-list email sent out by Hersh that the Muses/Wave singer was looking to put together a limited series of these very radical gigs. Quickly, she polled friends and local musicians alike in early September, in order to hopefully pull this off in a short amount of time. In mere days, she’d met her target number of 25 for a willing audience, the request was made of Hersh, and the date was set for the 23rd.

Buono first discovered Throwing Muses around 1992. But while she, like everyone, was flooded with a seemingly limitless variety of new bands during that time, Throwing Muses was one that endured with Michele; Hersh’s guitar and writing style seemed to seep into her very blood stream. Buono herself began playing in bands locally, influenced by the whole era, but dominantly by Hersh and Throwing Muses. To this day, she actively plays in a band (Missing Planes) and solo, the latter aptly under the moniker “Ellen West” the name of a Throwing Muses song off of their 1991 The Real Ramona album.

Michele’s path with Hersh would cross personally for the first time in 2004, as Michele helped to book 50 Foot Wave at Mohawk Place on May 9 of that year. They’d remain in contact, eventually leading to Buono taking Hersh up on her unusual and exciting offer to perform this up-close-and-personal set.

And in doing so, Buono ensured herself a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A singer that for the better part of two decades she’d been so influenced by… would perform right in her living room.

As the select attendees walked up to the front door of Michele’s house, most seemed hesitant, perhaps in weird disbelief of the situation. But for each, that feeling quickly turned to giddiness, as one of the first people they’d see was Kristen Hersh herself, mingling about, chatting with anyone, or helping her husband and manager Billy O’Connell dole out food for their 3 kids (they travel as a family flock, with their dog and two snakes as well). She blended in, bearing no sign of her reputation for shyness. It put many nerves at ease, including, presumably, her own.

Dubbed “the Shady Circle” it is solely Hersh, a guitar, a microphone, and a couple amplifiers. Her set of songs is built not from her varied history of bands and solo work, but mostly from Appalachian folk tunes she learned as a commune-living child in Rhode Island. Not to mention, through all of her life’s experience, a sharp sense of humor. After a few early kinks with equipment was ironed flat, she dove headlong into a series of dark and sometimes morbidly sweet songs of death, voodoo, love and even Buddhism. It seemed appropriate for the setting; a small group of people gathered in a moon-shape around a fire-red light, serenaded by their musical matriarch with old folk tunes. Each short song was sung with a quaint softness, a touch of nasality and sandpaper, and all of it cast a chilling mood that was usually countered in between songs by amusing stories of the past or light-hearted sarcasm.

There was no distraction, only unwavering gaze. In any other setting, casual attendees would be talking over the musician, laughing carelessly into their drinks and paying no mind (or for that matter, respect) to the performer. Such is the beauty of what each person was letting sink in the further she played on. As each song ended, and as Hersh’s eyes met everyone with a loving smile and a ‘thank-you’ as genuine as the Earth is round, not a soul could help from offering the same gushing appreciation back. Not only for each song, but also for who she was, where she was, and how the moment was all affecting them.

As the night wound down, everyone in the house got to share their own time with Hersh before leaving, talking about music, playing with the travelling pet snakes, and getting various items signed. Each and every person was embraced by her not even as a fan, just more as a friend. The respect was always mutual. Refreshingly, in the few words I got to share with her, she realistically quipped (in words), “My fans don’t want to come see me at a bar, I know that. They want to be able to hear and see me for themselves and connect with my music without someone spilling their beer down their back. And, you know, I could do the whole ‘Rock Star’ thing just like anybody else, but that’s just not me, when I get so much more out of playing for people like this…”

As for Michele, in spite of her Christmas-morning-like excitement, she played host perfectly, not only with putting the show together, but for taking care of each guest with food and comfort. But it was, after all, her night, with her idol, in her house… and when the clamor dust finally settled, all was left was a lifetime’s worth of beaming joy on her face. For it was something a slight few of us will ever be able to experience.

See www.kristinhersh.com: The Guitar That Love Built

PHOTO CREDIT: Eric M. Jensen