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LiveDC: Juliette Lewis @ Rock’N'Roll Hotel

September 24, 2009 by Sam

Words by Katie Greer.  
Photographs by Sam Goldstein.

If Juliette Lewis and her edgy-looking band come back to DC anytime soon, you should be at that show. You will love her. I do not know you, but you will love her. Let me explain why:

It has nothing to do with the fact that it can be fun to see famous people face-to-face or the fact that she was in Natural Born Killers, or Old School, or anything like that. (My personal favorite JL role is that of beauty-brainy college student Rain in Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives, but that is neither here nor there). It doesn’t really have much to do with her band’s music, either. They weren’t bad by any means! One of her guitarists was even sporting this modified-Cure bangs-in-the-face hairstyle that all but screamed I MAY BE ELUSIVE BUT I’M READY TO RAWK!!!

Yeah, the band was decent. Nothing new or sonically provocative, but then again that might not have been what they were going for.  I personally would add either more bass, more synths, or Peter Frampton, but I am no musical producer-extraordinaire. Just seeing J-Lew shake it and scream it in crazy witch stripper boots, feathered football shoulder pads and pulling off stage moves that would make both David Johansen AND Richard Simmons very proud was enough of a show for me.

I liked Lewis’ vocals more than I liked her band, but I really can’t tell if she’s kidding or not. During the show, I was wondering why someone like Karen O gets labeled a rock star while someone like Lewis gets labeled a psychopath. Here are some hypotheses I came up with:

1)   It’s because of the music

2)   It’s because she’s an actress

3)   It’s because she’s a scientologist who may or may not have been exposed to asbestos. Twice.

4)   It’s because of the album cover artwork (vs. this and this )

5)   Maybe it’s not because of this but I just thought this was an appropriate time to mention that the price of Lewis’ album on vinyl was 25 FRICKEN dollars! COME ON

But now that I’ve had some time to digest the entire situation and contemplate, I’m wondering if I just experienced some kind of bizarre stage performance inspired by Tony Clifton. Lewis has a voice, I’ll tell you that much. But it almost sounds like she’s auditioning for some kind of Patti Smith/Courtney Love/Janis Joplin hybrid biopic. Lewis is a helluva performer, though. And a great storyteller. She told us one about some waitress named LaToya in a diner telling her she was gonna pray for her. And you know what Lewis said? “That’s real nice of you and I don’t mean to be selfish or anything, but can you pray for my band too?” Just like a real rock star, baby. I don’t really care if this was a joke or not. It was fun.

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