Notes on PJ Harvey: Cathedral Theater, Masonic Temple, Detroit, MI, 9-28-24

Polly Jean Harvey strides onstage at 8pm, precisely – security advised us of this as they scanned our tickets – and begins the night the same way she has all tour, with the full performance of I Inside The Old Year Dying. Harvey controls every element, every note, every move onstage and I am not pointing that fact out as bad or as a negative, the artist is engineering an experience, this is how she wants these songs presented. It is not the kind of thing I am usually drawn to but even within spontaneity there is control or at least direction. It is not just setting things loose and hoping for the best (and even when someone makes that choice there is action in the decision, it is a form of boundary). 

The show is broken into two halves, the first featuring the full performance of the record end to end and then a second act with a selection of material from across the decades. The first act is an exquisite, elaborate, precise execution that is even richer and more broad than the record because she is a fucking genius – yes, we are using that word for her – and knows how to pick the musicians she works with and what on record is deep and multilayered becomes a living, breathing organism onstage. If you read about her concepts behind the record, it is absolutely the logical follow-through, a record based on native dialect and landscapes and ancient folk tales, it had to become an entity in order to be successful live. So while there is absolute precision this band absolutely breathes. It is alive.