Well,
this girl had well and truly put me in my place last time out; Juliana Hatfield
was pretty much the one outlier in a stacked Boston Rock wet dream line-up at
the ACLU Benefit Show at the Paradise 2 years ago (gig 1,028), the one act I’d
not been keeping up with and the one I wasn’t relishing. However, backed by The
Gravel Pit rhythm section of Valauskas and Caldes, she’d put on a tough and
acerbic set of upbeat college rock, prompting me (also at EdV’s insistence, he
having been involved heavily in it) to pick up her 2016 album “Pussycat”. A
similarly tough and acerbic listen, a certain incumbent of a certain White
House particularly looming large in Jools’ lyrical crosshairs, it certainly did
enough to put la Hatfield back onto my radar. I did actually think twice about
this Thekla show when it was announced, an early stop-off on a rare jaunt
around the UK, but the early addition of Bristol fave She Makes War swayed me
into booking a ticket for this one. An added attraction was that this was the
original Three – a quick message to EdV confirmed that it would be the same
line-up who scribbled over my set-list back at the Windsor Old Trout in December
1992 (gig 227)!
Fellow
post-grunge US rock acolyte and Level 3 casualty Rich Carter was up for this,
so I picked the man up for a swift drive down, cutting across town to avoid
Bristol’s one-way silliness and parking up at 7.15, shortly after doors. We ran
into Laura, AKA She Makes War, striding purposefully down the corridor and
asked her when she was on – “now!” came the hasty reply, and, sure enough,
Laura and her 2-piece backing band were ready for the off at 7.20. Quipping,
“is there anyone out there?” to the sparse early crowd, she kicked off with the
splendidly menacing growl of “Drown Me Out”, thence apologising for doing that
song on a boat! Sipping from a mug of tea and making quips about the early
start (“thanks for coming out at teatime!”), she was in relaxed fooling, delivering
a fine set of US alt-rock-tinged tuneage. The undulating “Cold Shoulder”, a
vocal-looped acapella “Delete Myself” (I’m not usually a fan of the dreaded
loops, but she used them here with some style) and a quieter, almost pastoral
dreampop “Slow Puncture” were highlights, before the brash, Pixies-ish hobnail
boot-stomp of “Devastate Me” and the excellent, post-grunge change-of-pace of
“Love This Body” completed a splendid 40 minutes. In between, Laura gushed
fulsomely about tonight’s headliner (“I wouldn’t be the musician I am if not
for [Juliana]”), but in doing so, set a very high performance bar for her
mentor.
Had
a nice chat with Laura during the interval as the place filled up. However it was
probably still only half full at showtime, and I grabbed an easy spot against
the stage, house right, while Mr. Carter hung back – not a front row boy! Spot
on 9.30, Juliana and her 4-piece Three (augmented by an extra touring
guitarist) took the stage, Juliana inquiring whether it was her first time ever
in Bristol (2nd, replied a punter), then leading the refrain into
her best-known number, “Everybody Loves Me But You”, a still corking little tune.
A good start…
I
need to say this from the off; I enjoyed this gig. I really did. Even given a
Pit-augmented strong showing last time out, I had reservations about tonight,
but overall this was better than anticipated. The original rhythm section
rolled back the years with a superb, strong and forceful performance, drummer
Todd Fisher holding his sticks aloft Neil Peart-like throughout the set, and
bassist Dean Fisher (more on him later) belying his Bob Mould-like white
cropped beard and general geography teacher look with an energetic performance.
The set itself was a well-chosen career-spanning retrospective, with lots of
delving back into that 90’s era when Juliana was the post-grunge College Pop
Ice Queen pin-up, although I doubt whether many of the audience would have been
familiar with the many “Pussycat” cuts, but anyway… Juliana, however, seemed
again a little distracted at times (I’m going to be kind and say, actually,
that’s probably just her…), and on occasions her fragile, little girl lost
voice turned into “little girl lost in the mix”, and also sounded strained,
particularly through the higher octaves. Her stage persona was a little odd as
well, Juliana on one occasion urging the disappointingly static half-full
Thekla crowd to, “stop staring at me!”, then later rambling confusingly about
their hushed attentiveness. All a bit bizarre at times then, and it felt to me
like that 2011 Portsmouth Lemonheads gig (gig 834), when her male counterpart Evan
Dando (cliché to say so, I know, but hey, when you hear clip clops, you’ve
gotta say “horse”, right?) put in a similarly uneven performance and was
similarly often carried by their rhythm section (The Hi-Fi boys in Evan’s
case).
Lots
of good bits, though, so let’s focus on those; “Wonder Why” was a lovely slow-burn
grungy number with gorgeous yearning vocals, probably Juliana’s best vocal of
the night; “Going Blonde”’s racy galloping college pop featured some excellent
stickwork from Todd; the glam stomp of “Rhinoceros” was a full-bore anti-Trump
blast with a great, upbeat hooky chorus, and the 80’s cheesy hit “(Let’s Get)
Physical” from her recent Olivia Newton John covers album sounded rough, tough
and… well, physical…! During this one, bassist Dean Fisher caught my eye and complimented
my Gravel Pit tee-shirt, so I flashed him the TGP tattoo to his general
hilarity. Nice to see that’s still getting attention! The tense and taut
“Nirvana” closed out an uneven but overall entertaining rhythm-powered set,
with the excellent punky “What A Life” the highlight of the 2 encores.
Grabbed
an unpacking Mr. Fisher at the end; I’d originally swiped Dean’s set-list at
set-end, only to be asked by the bassist to put it back! However, he then
kicked it over to me midway through “What A Life”, so I thought it only fair
that he sign it afterwards (and get the rest of the band to do so!)! The
affable bassist admitted he didn’t know how to react upon seeing my TGP tattoo
(!) and we shared a brief chat about Boston rock, Dean sharing my incredulity
that The Sheila Divine aren’t massive, and also enjoying (then showing his
bandmates!) my phone pic of that Old Trout set-list, before I was
unceremoniously moved along by an overzealous security guard. Lovely to chat
with him, and also lovely – albeit equally brief – to chat with Stacee, who I
met at that ACLU show 2 years ago, and who was on this tour in a photographer
capacity.
The
chat with Rich on the drive home revealed he felt similarly about the set,
commenting that this would be a really difficult review to write (it was!). So
overall another Curate’s Egg of a set – I’m getting a bit tired of using that
phrase for my veteran Boston chanteuses,
but I’ve got to call it like I see it. Fun but flawed (or flawed but fun…!),
but hey, I’m still keeping faith with Juliana!
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