Kristin Hersh: Paradoxical Undressing @ Cabaret Voltaire, 13 Aug

Paradoxical Undressing is the extreme state of hypothermia where the illusion of body heat causes sufferers to remove their clothes and worsen their condition. Tonight, Kristin Hersh uses the syndrome as an analogy to explain the casting away of her perceived shyness to reflect candidly on coping with personal tragedy, unplanned motherhood and an untameable, obsessive compulsion to create while she was a young musician in the Throwing Muses.

The gig consists of two acts where spoken word is accompanied with subtle guitar strum and punctuated with reinterpretations of songs from across the Muses' back catalogue and her nebulous solo career. With strange tales of hanging out with rats, lounging with lizards, growing up in a hippy commune and wearing elephant shit sandals, Hersh’s monologues are consistently colourful and fluidly poetic. A certain mastery of lighting and projector serves the subdued atmosphere well, and although her exterior appears cool and reserved, there’s a possessed gaze in her eye that suggests this yields a greater catharsis than most gigs. [Dave Kerr]