gothenburg - november 2006

Wednesday 8th

Outside it was raining - just like it had been during the full 3 1/2 hour drive up here. The venue - Pusterviksbaren - is a small place and tonight it seems pretty much filled up to it's 200 person capacity. Opener Jon Auer (of the Posies) is very talkative indeed - his show seems like a 50-50 combination of stories and music. Some of his songs are pretty good and a few of the stories kind of funny but all of it seems to be a fixed part of the set, rather contrived. I praise myself lucky that I didn't see him at the Stockholm show (the next day I got confirmation from Lieve that it had been pretty much an exact repeat)! He does try a few experiments like inviting a drummer from the audience to accompany him on a miked guitar case and also walking down into the crowd to perform a song there.


So eventually he gets off the "stage" - which is really just a small raised triangle in the corner of the room - and after a short wait Juliana appears.

It only takes a couple of songs to convince me that this is going to be another great show. She's in a really good mood and seems full of energy, and this combined with a very appreciative audience in an intimate venue is a sure recipe for success!

The energy thing is really striking during a song like Everybody Loves Me... which she delivers to perfection while kicking and jumping as if 1992 was only yesterday.

And she talks a lot this evening but it's the exact opposite of the studied material we got from Jon Auer - this is all very spontaneous and ad lib. Here's a few samples:


"spit at me - throw stuff at me"

...to stop her from talking too much - no nobody wanted to do that!

"if you were french you'd agree with me"

...explaining how she felt it was rude of her coming to Sweden and just talk english to the audience instead of using their native language. In fact she promised to take swedish lessons and come and stay there for a year.

"ssshhh!"

The end of a rather hilarious discussion where she thought someone in the audience asked whether she had a tattoo (he had in fact said "you don't have to") and how she'd thought about getting one when turning 30, didn't want to anyway and now she might do it when turning 40, whereupon some not so well brought up guy yelled out "that's next year". Kind of ruined the myth that all swedes are overly polite!

Hey I'm forgetting to talk about the music now - that would be the main thing after all. Here's the set list:

    • Hotels
    • Oh
    • My Sister
    • Necessito
    • Somebody Is Waiting For Me
    • Down On Me
    • Spin The Bottle
    • Choose Drugs
    • Simplicity Is Beautiful
    • Might be In Love
    • Slow Motion
    • Stupid Thing
    • Everybody Loves Me But You
    • If I Could
    • Fleur de Lys
    • Out (Lemonheads cover)
    • Hole In The Sky
    • Mountains Of Love (just an attempt)
    • Nirvana
    • My Enemy
    • Baby Gets High
    • Am I Ever On Your Mind?

     

Mountains Of Love came about after someone in the audience asked her if she could play it - she made a brave attempt and got through the first verse before having to conclude that the answer was no - but stressing that "I'm not afraid to fail".

The Lemonheads cover was a surprise - my favorite of the set would probably be the last one which hasn't really got an official name but Am I Ever On Your Mind would be a good guess. Hoping to hear more of that one.


All in all a very promising start to these 4 days of following my favorite artist on tour!

Mood of the evening: Intimate and high energy

 

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