Ethan Hall10 said:hmmm yeah, the stage is a theater, sure—but different artists have wildly different ideas about what "putting on a show" actually means. In raw rock, that factor is minimal, which is why people are acting so surprised. I agree that among the crowd of Juliette Lewis fans and posers, there are snobs listening strictly because she’s Juliette Lewis. It's the same way a bunch of girls listen to U2 or Jamiroquai just because the singer is "so cute"—if you swapped the frontman for some parachute technician with the same vocal range but zero charisma, they’d lose interest instantly. That’s where we stop talking about music and start talking about acting—not by the performer, but by the audience itself. That's just pure posing.
And it was obvious yesterday that most of the crowd was nowhere near "garage rocker" territory. You could tell by how little anyone moved; the mass of people had zero intention of even stirring in the front rows, which is standard for a high-energy concert of this type. Instead, we had fifteen meatheads in the front row who probably would've lost their minds only if Juliette Lewis stepped within a foot of the monitors at the edge of the stage. Nobody understood the pauses either—they just clapped during the breaks like the song was already over. Those are the music hacks who came to break up the monotony between pop hits and country, or to impress a date, or simply to watch "that actress" sing.
I don't even know her discography. I was curious to see how an actress sings, but hey, David Hasselhoff sings too, so who cares? Not because he's some blonde idiot, but because his singing is garbage. Supposedly Juliette Lewis plays great raw rock, except it's the kind of "raw rock" that lacks a decent riff. If there were any riffs, then the soundcheck was actively working against them—and that's the catastrophe. I was interested in the raw grit because I come from the off-mainstream scene, someone who's been in plenty of mosh pits. That's exactly why the lack of a solid riff and the absence of energy that carries an audience left me thirsty while standing next to a fountain. Instead, you see sweaty idiots making no noise and a girl giving it her all, but in the end, as someone else put it, it's just oil and water.
Her trying to act like Iggy Pop doesn't change the fact that she could do the exact same thing with the mute button engaged on the mixer. Great visual, terrible tone.
Relax a little.
You gonna grab a beer or what?
The concert was great.