PJ Harvey: I Inside the Old Year Dying Tour
Words by Mickey McCarter
Photos by Nalinee Darmrong
PJ Harvey’s current US tour is not a show as much as it is an immersive experience. As the performance recently progressed through the evening at The Anthem in DC, PJ and her band drew the audience deeper and deeper into a wooded space, created in our imaginations through the use of sound and light, until we had traveled a path that left us alone with her introspective music.
Touring in support of I Inside the Old Year Dying, her 10th studio album, PJ visited The Anthem on Sept. 11, playing two sets of music. The first set consisted of the entirety of I Inside the Old Year Dying in tracklist order. To prepare the audience in experiencing the album, the latest on the first level of The Anthem were tightly controlled. The first floor bars were shuttered and no food was served so as to allow for no disruption of the setting.
PJ Harvey and her band perform as a chamber pop collective, orchestrating pieces of music as if they were steps on a journey. Along the way, field sounds, largely birdsong, lured us into complex arrangements that piqued our curiosity and further drew our minds outside of our bodies.
In the middle of the first set, PJ Harvey and her band played the title track, which felt a little more urgent, a little more fast-paced, and a little more like we are going somewhere together.
Watch the official music video for “I Inside the Old I Dying” by PJ Harvey on YouTube:
I felt more rooted in the experience for the second half of the first set, as if I were familiar now with the rules and understood the destination we had sought together. The second half of the album seemed looser to me, and songs such as “A Child’s Question, August” settled into a sense of contemplation and a dash of melancholy. The show didn’t invoke sadness at this point truly but rather a dash of blues to an overall state of yearning and exploring.
The band ended the first set without PJ, which surprised me. They performed “The Colour of Earth” from Let England Shake (2011) at the lip of the stage. It was rather Celtic and served as a cleanser, breaking the spell that had been cast over I Inside the Old Year Dying.
For a second set of songs, PJ pulled from Let England Shake, To Bring You My Love (1995), and several other earlier albums. In the latter half of the set, she played “Dress,” her groundbreaking first single (1991) from her debut album Dry. Across the increasingly urgent song, the narrator sought to find what she wants in her relationship through a night out but she’s trying too hard to make the relationship something that it is not or perhaps should not be.
Watch PJ Harvey perform “Dress” live for Glastonbury 2024 on YouTube:
PJ Harvey closed her main set with the title track of To Bring You My Love, and she returned for a two-song encore: “C’mon Billy” from the same album and “White Chalk” (another title track, 2007). “White Chalk” was a powerful showcase for PJ’s voice — reminding you that is the primary reason that you want to experience her show. Her voice was clear and strong and reassuring. It seeks you out and takes you as it finds you, and you leave it with a stirring in your mind and thoughts about how it made you feel.
Here are some photos of PJ Harvey performing at The Anthem in DC on Sept. 11, 2024. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Nalinee Darmrong.
