On September 11, 2024, PJ Harvey kicked off the North American leg of her I Inside the Old Year Dying tour with a show at DC’s Anthem. However, show is a misleading term for what Harvey created and shared with audience members that night. It was an immersive experience that felt more like performance art or a poetry reading than a punk-rock concert. I obviously wasn’t expecting a headbanging rager since Harvey’s new album is folk and inspired by her epic poem Orlam which she published in the spring of 2022. But the show captured the essence of her experimental album better than I could have imagined!
Harvey played two sets of music, the first being the entirety of I Inside the Old Year Dying in the exact tracklist order. I think it was the first concert I’ve ever been to where an artist has played their entire new album (clearly the concert was not short). Another feature of the show that leant itself to a more immersive experience was the lack of bar service on the floor of The Anthem. Typically, people are milling about buying drinks, food or shirts, but Harvey insisted the stores shut down for the first set to keep the setting tightly controlled and the audience totally focused. Harvey and her longtime bandmates John Parish, Jean-Marc Butty, Giovanni Ferrario, and James Johnston performed almost like a chamber pop collective orchestrating complex pieces of folk music ripe with synthesizers and birdsong. A real standout of the show was Harvey’s performance of the title track “I Inside the Old Year Dying.” While most of the show felt extremely experimental and fluid, Harvey’s performance of that song felt emotional and classic PJ Harvey. The band finished their first set, without Harvey which was surprising, by performing “The Colour of Earth” from Let England Shake (2011) which definitely set up for a faster paced second set.
In her second set of the evening, Harvey pulled an eclectic bunch of songs from Let England Shake, To Bring You My Love (1995), and several other of her earlier albums. In the latter half of the set, she played “Dress,” her groundbreaking first single from her debut album Dry (1991). The crowd seemed particularly happy when she played “Down by the Water,” a fan favorite from To Bring You My Love. PJ Harvey closed her nostalgic second set with the title track of To Bring You My Love before returning for a two-song encore: “C’mon Billy” from the same album and “White Chalk” from White Chalk (2007). “White Chalk” was a showstopping encore and powerful example of Harvey’s distinctive voice. The crowd was reminded, beyond her showmanship and storytelling, that her iconic voice was reason enough to see the show!
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