The Juliana Hatfield Three at Turf Club, Saint Paul (08 Mar 2015)

Whatever Forever

Local band Whatever Forever opened up the show. The band is a bit of a supergroup, with Howard W. Hamilton III (of Red Pens), Clara Salyer (of Prissy Clerks), Dave Gatchell (of Selby Tigers… which would explain why I saw Arzu in the audience) and Jordan Bleau (of Frankie Teardrop). We like all those other bands, so seeing them all together under one band is pretty cool. I like that both Howard and Clara traded vocals, and I got the feeling that everyone contributed to writing Whatever Forever songs.



My favorite song on their set was “Born Bored”, but the highlight has to be when they drew attention to “International Women’s Day” (which was the same night, March 8th).



Soon as Whatever Forever ended their set, The Juliana Hatfield dedicated fans rushed to the front of the stage.



This was my fifth time seeing Juliana Hatfield, as either solo artist or with Evan Dando (of the Lemonheads) or with Minor Alps (with Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws), so it is always nice to see her play again.



The nostalgic stage banters were fun to hear, especially when Hatfield tells us that the last time she was in the Twin Cities was 2003 and then asked if any of the audience saw them 12 years ago. Bassist Dean Fisher joked, “Their parents were at that show!”



Later on in the show, Hatfield wanted to get a bunch of 90s bands together, The Lemonheads, Letter to Cleo, Marcy’s Playground, etc., in a music festival called “It Came From the 90s”. In her mind, she’s got it all sorted out, including the poster artwork and so on.

Juliana Hatfield Setlist

After the Become What You Are set, Hatfield was ready to toss out one of her guitar pedals. I felt that the second set was more fun… now that they got all the business of the 21st Anniversary Album out of the way. Starting with some solo songs, “What A Life” and “Dumb Fun”… before playing a block of new tunes from the official sophomore The Juliana Hatfield album, Whatever, My Love: “Wood”, “Push Pin”, and “I’m Shy”. I have to say that the new songs (especially “Push Pin”) sounded fantastic live.



The encore was “Nirvana”, a song from my first Hatfield album that I own, Hey Babe. Before playing it, Hatfield joked, “My G-String is giving me trouble.”



Since they’ve been absent from Minneapolis and Saint Paul for over a decade, the band promised us, “We’ll definitely come back to the Twin Cities.”



If you grew up in the 90s you definitely own a copy of Become What You Are. You also owe it to yourself to hear the record live on this tour, which continues now in the West Coast:

The Juliana Hatfield’s Whatever, My Love is out now on American Laundromat Records.