september 2000 - the diary

Sunday 24th

The day has finally arrived, after waiting nearly 7 years I'll actually get a chance to see Juliana on stage again. She's scheduled to play at a small festival - the Riverfest - that takes place in Northampton, MA which is something like a 2 hour drive west of Boston. And a really scenic drive it turns out to be. Once out of the Boston suburbs it's a typical New England green landscape of forested rolling hills.

Driving south on I91 I realize that this is finally happening when reading one of the signs at the exit to Northampton - it says N. Hatfield of course! After a bit of driving around I find my way to the fairgrounds where the festival takes place.

 
  There's a short line of maybe 60 people waiting outside - the weather is getting hot and humid, and while standing in line I suddenly hear the voice! Could it be her? Yes of course that is Juliana doing her sound check."Try a song" someone suggests and they start playing "Baby Gets High" - this is simply awesome, and I haven't even caught a single glimpse of her yet!


I would shortly after, when she enters the stage just a few minutes past 12:00 and starts out with "Cool Rock Boy". The sound is perfect, the band is really tight, and that voice is as good as I've ever heard it. Although the set is much too short - not much more than 30 minutes, I must say that I fully enjoy every minute of it. It's a shame though that she's been scheduled this early since not more than 100 people has turned up at this time.

The following bands aren't that exciting but I decide to stay on until the end of Sleater-Kinney's set which is kind of OK, but a far cry from the Juliana experience.


Musical highlight: Fleur de lys

Never realized that this song could rock so hard - it makes perfect sense that she's kept playing it live for so long! The TSF stuff were also really well suited for live performance.

Quote of the day:

"This is a song that I wrote when I was a teenager - like 5,6,7 years ago when I was a teenager....!" (Introducing Spin the Bottle)

 

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