50 Foot Wave

50 Foot Wave is the latest project of Throwing Muses frontwoman Kristin Hersh, and it's almost a Muses reunion. The trio's bassist is Muses thrummer Bernard Georges, which makes the new band two thirds of the under-recognized alt-rock greats. 50 Foot Wave's unpolished, self-titled debut LP hums with all the raw energy that last year's Muses relapse lacked. Hersh might be the most interesting married lyricist in rock, still a compelling livewire after giving birth to four sons (sharing a house with five boys understandably creates an overload of nervous tension).

It's one of alt-rock's sadder ironies that the Muses' biggest splash was scored by singer-guitarist (and Hersh's half-sister) Tanya Donelly, who had 15 minutes of MTV rotation with Belly after she left the Muses. Hersh has never been a Big Name, but the diminutive singer has always been a major figure, if not a large blip on the commercial radar. With 50 Foot Wave, she's banking on the loyalty of the cult following she's developed over nearly 20 years in the game. The singer-guitarist plans to release, with minimal promotion, two EPs a year on her Throwing Music label and tour as much as possible between them. Hersh shoots sparks when she's playing quiet acoustic material. For this amps-to-11 gig in the Beachland's little room, the Cleveland FD had better be on hand.