“How’s the temperature?” The question was asked by the opener, Will Dailey. “Juliana Hatfield asked me to ‘take the temperature,’ so that’s what I’m doing right now. I don’t know what that means but when Juliana Hatfield asks you to do something, you say ‘uh-huh’ and figure it out. So, how’s the temperature?”
The temperature, he concluded, was warm. Hatfield, the 90’s alt-rock goddess, was playing a coming-home show last Wednesday at ONCE in Somerville, where she’s nearing the end of her most recent tour. Juliana grew up in Duxbury, MA, graduated from both BU and Berklee, and resides in Cambridge. She dedicated a last-minute song called “Christmas Cactus” to her mother, who was in the audience.
The 52-year old Juliana Hatfield has been revisiting her youth a lot lately, cutting a covers album of Olivia Newton-John songs in 2018 and then another full record of songs by The Police in 2019. Through the lens of her 90’s snarling guitar and experienced songwriting instincts, these songs (and Juliana) feel revitalized.
She spread these tributes liberally throughout her set, sometimes back-to-back with great effect. Her band burned a white-hot hole through “Murder By Numbers” (The Police) and followed it up with “Physical” (Newton-John). The latter was originally a sunny pop song with cheesy synths, sugary melodies, and an unsubtle message (I wanna get physical/let me hear your body talk). Juliana kept the melodies and lyrics but made it her own. Her vocals were elated and sky high before she slammed down on her ZVEX Fuzz pedal and ripped into her First Act guitar for a solo to push the whole song (and the audience) over the edge and into sweet oblivion. I could not repel a Cheshire cat grin as it climbed up my cheeks and stayed until the band had sufficiently turned the 80’s mall pop song into a smoldering heap of ashes and post coital bliss—well worth the price of admission right there.
Hatfield brought out fan favorites from her storied career and staggering 26 studio album catalog. This included numerous choice cuts from her highest charting releases, Become What You Are and Only Everything. Both albums featured the same bass player, Dean Fischer, who was playing bass at the show. Being a homecoming gig, I half expected her to play the song “Make it Home,” which she performed on cult 90’s TV show My So-Called Life, but *sighs and leans back on locker* it was not meant to be.
To close, she performed the devastatingly beautiful “Choose Drugs” which is about her former bandmate/boyfriend Evan Dando of The Lemonheads (I say it’s me or drugs/You choose drugs). At 10:30pm, the show ended, and it was time to call it a night. The crowd scattered and Juliana posed for photos with her mom on stage. Although the tour is wrapping up, I have a feeling Juliana Hatfield will be on the road again very soon.