Juliette Lewis at The Borderline
Juliette Lewis – The Borderline – 30 June 2010
Words by Brendan Monteiro / Photo’s by Marcus Maschwitz
The Borderline as played host to some intense shows and with a sold out and fervent crowd eagerly waiting it promises to be no different tonight. A blue haired figure swiftly takes to the stage, makes a left turn behind the drums set and startles the crowd. The aforementioned blue haired figure is in fact Juliette Lewis, she totally suprises everyone and its 15 seconds into Kick Song before anyone realises it’s actually her. As soon as it sinks in the crowd jolt into action like a well oiled machine, with hands raised to the thunderous rhythms, the night is off to a cracking start. The opening track ( which Juliette calls Kick Song “because it has a lot of kick drum, that’s about it.”) is a new song but everyone reacts to it as if it were an old classic, the whole venue is feeling every beat. Mid song she breaks out from behind the drums and ventures to the edge of the stage to really get the show started.
I have never seen an artist perform with so much gut wrenching passion in my life and Juliette Lewis is by far the best performer I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. You can see that she is determined to give her fans the best show and she throws every ounce of herself into it. I firmly believe that even if you hated her music you would still enjoy and appreciate her as a live performer. She’s quirky and funny and she totally obliterates the stage with mountains of energy, tonight she is in full flex! It’s as if the music has a spell on her and on stage she just loses control. She’s the kind of performa that makes you want to get down in the thick of it and get all sweaty. The set is a non stop barrage of awesomeness of old Licks songs mixed with new material from the Terra Incognita album and it makes for one hell of a night. Sticky Honey is received just as well as Fantasy Bar, in fact the crowd go pretty much nuts for the entire set but it’s Uh Huh that really stands tall as a early favourite tonight, It’s summer charm has the adorning fans fixed in it’s grip.
Juliette also pushes the envolope with whackyness, her stage persona is made all the more eccentric with her trademark feathers and I find her inbetween song banter thoroughly entertaining. There is a lot of openness and honesty as well as some either genius lines or subtle outburst of insanity
When I was small I used to climb the tallest trees and look out
To the commune with the pixies and the wildebeests
but the combination of this and the music renders the crowd constantly in the palm of her hand. One thing that might go under the radar for people is Juliette’s lyrics, she is not just another “actress slash musician” and really does have some emotional and involving lyrics. She explains on the night that she writes “Songs of overwhelming pain so that you can feel me”, she goes on “I write songs to feel better and see if anyone else feels the same” and I think that this crowd really did feel her, they connected on an unimaginable level and it’s stuff like that which make for shows that are remembered forever in the minds of those who witnessed them.
After a set that comprises of a portion of everything that Juliette has ever done, she storms back on to the stage for the encore. The energy that was missing for the minute or so in her absence has returned and at breaking point immediately as she kicks into Hot Kiss. The party vibe is re-ignited; this is what Juliette Lewis does best, she brings the party or more correctly she is the party. She doesn’t just walk back into the room to sing her encore, she takes occupation of it and totally owns it! She’s raw entertainment like nothing else on earth and if you haven’t seen it yet, make a plan.
Setlist:
Kick Song, Fantasy Bar, Pray For The Band Latoya, Sticky Honey, Rock Away, Hard Lovin’ Woman, You’re Speaking My Language, Purgetory Blues, Uh Huh, Got Love To Kill, Terra Incognita, Suicide Dive Bombers, Hot Kiss, No Fun???
