I dunno.
On the plus side, Evan Dando looks great and Juliana Hatfield hasn’t looked healthier since her Blake Babies days.
And they both made it.
And they have a great rapport. Evan has that ice cool baby blues surfer dude shit going down and Juliana is like the Eminem of 90s alt rock: a twitchy disaster area. But not any more or at least not as bad. She is relatively at ease tonight -an 11p shared set at Mercury Lounge.
And the former not lovers (Juliana is on the record as denying she ever had carnal knowledge of) have a sorta inside baseball tension stuff: all this wheels within wheels. Early on Juliana sang “I say it’s me or drugs and you chose drugs” and it seems pregnant with meaning, illicit an uncomfortable chuckle from the sold out crowd. Later Evan, who jokes he is having a teensy weensy bit of fun” warns never to discuss fun with Juliana. So it is all between the guitars stuff that deeper stuff seems to be happenning: we had bought in for the theatre of the real and we got it.
On the minus side: despite plenty of good moments, their set is a bore.
Both broke on the scene in 1986. Both are forty-three years old. Both have watched their moment come and go. both are pretty damn good alt rock softies from the 90s, one cut off by drugs, the other a nervous wreck. Both are well past their prime and even in their prime were average to very good rock song writers.
They love each other.
They are eccentric.
And they are not listener friendly -there is something vaguely self-important about them. At 43 years old, you aren’t a survivor, at 43 what you are is alive. And the set is a meandering, pleasant enough meander through songs nobody bought for very good reason: because they aren’t very good.
Evan opens with “Smile” and his baritone is a thing of beauty, and Juliana, adding back up vocals in her some times pitchy but not bad at all voice, is there to add coloring. And then they swap for a song and within an hour they are trading leads in mid song, with Juliana refusing to take the lead in one song with a “too low for me”.
If you have read Juliana’s excellent MUST READ FOR ANY BUDDING ROCK PERFORMER memoir “When I Grow Up”, her weird oscillating between insecurity and coldness should come as no surprise and her refusal to play even one of her hits is no shocker (though she might have included her cover of “It’s Only Rock N Roll” to great effect). The only song I recognized was “Butterfly” and maybe another one. But Juliana’s melodies are too etheral to be memorable: they disappear while you listen to em. In her memor she got it wrong. People are off hand about her gifts because her gifts are off hand.
Evan, who I saw many times with the Lemonheads and who I have always liked, comes across better. At least he does pull out some hits for us: “It’s About Time” for one, “My Drug Buddy” for another. Plus a fine cover of “$1,000 wedding” -though he could’ve included “Mrs Robinson” or “Frank Mills” to great effect. I liked his 2009 Varshons and “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye” (the Leonard Cohen cover) is excellent. But even this needs a little shading, the sameyness can be deadly at times. It is like the songs are quite ready to be sung and while there is a lot to be said for the way Evan caresses his words, and Juliana stretches them., it doesn’t gel as it might It suggest to me, they need to practise a little more, need to work out a better set list. I don’t see why Juliana can’t sing “Spin The Bottle” or “For The Birds”. Who would it kill?
The best song of the night belonged to Juliana. A deeply felt “Evan” from her latest Peace And War (she plays “The End Of War” to less effect). The song isn’t all that but it is moving in its own right as she expresses her faith in the man sitting right beside her.
They leave without an encore.
Juliana claims she is quitting playing live. She has said that before. But if she does end her live performing here, shecan take pride her uncompromising and unwavering courage in the face of hacks like me.
I feel like the show was likely more interesting than this review :/