Throwing Muses – Parkway Theater – Minneapolis, MN – April 12, 2026

Throwing Muses – April 12, 2026 at the Parkway Theater, Minneapolis, MN

Review and photos by Jim Zons

I’ve always been a fan of the Throwing Muses with their great harmonies and classic “college radio sound” … that is, if you went to college in the late 1980s! So when I saw that they were coming to the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis, I knew I didn’t want to miss my chance to finally catch this band during a sold-out Sunday night show!

Some history. The Throwing Muses got their start in 1983, founded by half-sisters Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly while they were still in high school in Rhode Island. They were soon joined by David Narcizo on drums (which he had never played before!) and Leslie Langston on bass guitar. Langston left the band in 1990 and was replaced by Fred Abong on bass. Most of their biggest recordings were made in the late 1980s through the mid-1990s. Today’s Throwing Muses is comprised of Kristin Hersh on guitar and vocals, former bassist Fred Abong on drums, along with Kristin’s son Dylan on bass and Pete Harvey “Cello Pete” on cello.

I really like the Parkway for music: it’s comfortable, has excellent refreshments, and best of all, the sound is wonderful! It was a great venue for a band like the Throwing Muses; Kristin’s vocals filled the room and were perfectly balanced with the rest of the band. There were plenty of Throwing Muses “super fans” in the room who were singing along with their extensive catalog of music, with songs like “Sunray Venus,” “Slippershell,” “Static,” and “Counting Backwards.” I really liked the song “Soap and Water” (new to me!) which Kristin wrote when she was 15! If you like artists who tell a lot of stories in between songs … well, you would have been disappointed since Kristin came to play music! There were very few interruptions between songs; at one point, she pointed out her drummer had a new cowbell he was trying out, and she introduced the band members including her son Dylan on bass, but other than that, there was very little chatter between songs, which in this instance was just fine with me! At the end of the evening, the band left the stage and came back for the encore featuring two of Throwing Muses’ biggest hits: “Shark” and “Bright Yellow Gun.” It was a great Sunday night for music and I’m glad I finally got a chance to see the Throwing Muses in concert!