[DID NOT ATTEND: December 16, 2022] The Lemonheads / Juliana Hatfield / On Being an Angel [moved from April 21, 2022]
Back in 2018, I saw Evan Dando play a solo set in Jersey City. It was him with an acoustic guitar and he played over forty songs.
It was a shambolic affair, but fun. I didn’t really feel compelled to see him again, but I thought it would be fun to see him with a band. And when he announced this 30th Anniversary of It’s a Shame About Ray, my favorite album of theirs, I grabbed a ticket.
This show had been announced for a pretty long time before any other American dates were added. I never bothered to get a ticket for it and eventually it sold out. I’d much rather go to Union Transfer than a sold out White Eagle Hall show. So, it was an easy decision.
It sounds like he played some extra or different songs at WEH (we didn’t get Mrs. Robinson). But that’s okay.
Leah Hennessey was supposed to open but she was replaced by Juliana Hatfield and On Being an Angel.
I was a big fan of Juliana Hatfield back in the 90s. I thought she was the bomb. She had toured Philly back in 2015 and I considered going because it was the Juliana Hatfield Three playing again (I should have gone!). She also played in 2019, but I wasn’t quite as sure about that one for some reason. But here she was opening for The Lemonheads!
A few minutes after On Being an Angel cleared their stuff, Juliana came out. It was just her and her guitar plugged into a tiny amp. The volume was perfect She sounded great.
On Being an Angel are a four-piece from Austin. Given that they were opening for Lemonheads and Juliana Hatfield, I was expecting a sound that fit in with them.
They were actually a bit heavier and a bit more fuzzy than I would have expected. And I loved their sound instantly.
And then singer Paige stepped up to the mic and…we couldn’t hear her at all. Was it Union Transfer’s fault? That seemed unlikely. We were very close to the stage and that can certainly impact how you hear a band, but it seemed like the lead guitar (from Nick) was just cranked up super loud and drowned out everything else.
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