April 20 2007: Kristin Hersh, Dolorean - Iron Horse, Northampton MA

I got pretty excited when I heard Dolorean was coming to town. And for good reason. Their 35-minute opening set was some of the best 35 minutes of live music I've heard in a while.

They opened with "Heather Remind Me How This Ends," without keyboards but just two guitars, bass and drums. Al played the nicest rhythm you've ever heard, the rhythm section was perfectly subtle, the lead guitar player knew just how to play the song, and Al's voice sent shivers down my spine. They then went into "To Destruction," "Put You to Sleep," "In Love with the Doubt" and "What One Bottle Can Do." Sometimes Al would play acoustic, sometimes electric. Sometimes the lead player would switch to steel guitar. Through it all nothing could have been better. It was perfect.

And that word Perfect gets batted around an awful lot and seems often used to describe things that really aren't inarguably and utterly without flaw. But I use it here in nothing but the truest sense: I wouldn't have changed one second of the set. Nothing could have made it better.

Especially after they went into "Violence in the Snowy Fields." Unbelievable. People were on their feet to applaud. And then when the set closed with "Hannibal, MO" the audience clapped, and clapped, and clapped. For a few minutes there I thought the band might have to come back out for one last tune, but then a CD started playing over the PA came and somebody announced that Kristin Hersh would be up in a few minutes. Goddamn.

But I suppose that if nothing else Kristin deserves credit for the sheer balls required to take a stage after Dolorean. Cause no matter how great she could have been, she could not have matched those opening thirty-five minutes.