my pleasure to share! I wish I could have captured it all on video...but you get the gist of her hand movements anyways

I think it was only played purely because Mick was able to play it for her, unfortunately. However, since Mick's quit the Bad Seeds, he'll have plenty of more time to tour with our Polly? (haha)

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you can't straighten my curls

Jealoussssssssssssssssssssssssss...

Just thinking about the song being played live gives me goosebumps. Have you ever been listening to the song while walking alone at night? I have. Good times.

I'm crossing my fingers for this next tour. My town, on a night that I can make it.

I don't even care what she plays, it'll be amazing regardless.

you paint a pretty picture, I'll have to try it...

Yeah if she comes to Aus again, this time I'll be going to ALL of them. She played it in Perth as well, the only one I missed.
Still. I'm not complaining. haha.

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you can't straighten my curls

I wouldn't complain either. I missed her last year. Sad. I'd trade listening to "The River" on my iPod in the dark for seeing her sing it live any day.

You're going to all of them? If had the cash and transportation, I'd probably try to see her in both Portland and Seattle. If I were a billionaire, I'd just follow her everywhere until I started to creep myself out.

Ah, lucky you for being in Melbourne! I saw her in Sydney, but there was no The River. It's one of my all-time favourite songs. She can't play it? I can play it on piano. I'll play it for her!

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I cannot explain this, dear, I will not even try ...

I was in Sydney too

You should volunteer next time around haha

edit* I actually live in Brisbane, btw.

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you can't straighten my curls

oooh it'd be so awesome to hear The River live :/

^ And I did! Twice!

Funny, all this disquisition about how hard it was to be played on piano and how it required a proper instrumentation on stage, and then she simply played it on guitar Couldn't she have done it before, then?

Nice vid of The River live yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEaKYYtz ... ture=feedf

The keyboard/bass is an important part of the song, maybe she didn't want to play it without...
Don't hit me, but I thought it lacked a bit of strength compared to the album version, but I can't really pinpoint it. Maybe Mick's bass wan't loud enough?

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My PJ Harvey gallery

Heavily atmospheric songs like "The River" (ever listen to on quality headphones? Or vinyl? Whoa) don't always translate well live.

The keyboard there in the live version you uploaded seems sort of Halloween organ/music, lol. But I still love it!

Still I can understand why she put this in the LES tour set list. Makes sense.