me and my charms

Friday 08.18.06, Make-Out Room:Kristin HershJonah MatrangaI listened to Kristin Hersh's Hips and Makers album a whole hell of a lot during my sophomore year at UC Santa Cruz. In a way it prepared me for tragic love long before I really began to experience tragic love. Of course 12 years later I am all too familiar. You can't leave me nowI haven't left you yetSeeing Kristin Hersh play at the Make-Out Room Friday night, in a small room with probably no more than 150 other people...well, she called down the spirits. She played plenty off of Hips and Makers as well as newer songs, accompanied only by her acoustic guitar. My friend Dave kept telling me not to fall over. Except when she encored with Me and My Charms I almost did lose my balance.She and her family had just flown in from Iceland, and she talked about how she had been really looking forward to seeing puffins after her nine-year-old brought home a book about Iceland with a chapter about Moss and Puffins. "Except the only puffin I saw was being eaten. And not by a walrus. By a guy. They eat puffin there, you know. And whale. Whale kabobs."