Juliana Hatfield continued her series of solo acoustic concerts live streamed online with a performance last Saturday of her album, Bed. The album was originally released in 1998, after the fiasco of God's Foot, a still unreleased album Juliana recorded in 1996 and intended for release in 1997. Bed was a stripped down record that didn't incorporate digital effects and according to Juliana, "It sounds as raw as I felt. It has no pretty sheen. The mistakes and
unattractive parts were left in, not erased. Just like my career. Just
like life." I bought Bed on CD years ago and after re-listening to it last week, it really is one of her better albums and probably her most under-appreciated album. It is a solidly raw rocking record, so I wondering how it would translate to an all acoustic performance. It turned out just fine, Juliana's performance was far more confident than her previous "album" show (Become What You Are) and her guitar work was excellent, pounding out power chords and energetically transformed these songs to a different level, plus she only played the album once (see last show). I love the album and the acoustic version is a very fine compliment to the songs. I highly recommend you listen to both back-to back to compare. Juliana rounded out the set with some bonus tracks, including Waves (from a compilation. Volume 13:The Lucky Issue), As If Your Life Depended On It (from the Please Do Not Disturb EP) and Staying In (from Weird).
Notes:
- Juliana said she would like to perform an album a month. Next month, she plans to play the Only Everything album in it's entirety, from 1995. I am especially interested in this show because this was the album that introduced me to her music. The only time I have had the pleasure of seeing her live was when she came to town touring this album (1995). This just might be her most "successful" record and possibly her best-seller (?) and I still love this album, arguably my favourite Juliana album.
- Her next album is called, Blood followed by another all-covers record. She continued to receive suggestions of who she should cover next during the Q and A session at the end of the set, like she did last time. American Laundromat Records is taking presale orders, as well as for signed copies, test pressings, special vinyl colours and VIP bundles for the new album. Release date is May 14th.
- Listen to the first single off Blood, Mouthful Of Blood. Song sounds great! Hopefully she'll perform it next live stream?
- The sound quality of the stream is excellent, the vocals and guitar are balanced perfectly. I recorded this "live on the fly" with a direct output to a digital recorder. Not sure if the re-broadcast audio would be as lossless as the original livestream. Unfortunately, there are a couple issues probably due to laggy internet as there a few audio glitches in the sound. Particularly, tracks 1 and 5, but it doesn't affect the enjoyment of the music too much. I will upgrade my internet speed before next month!
- As of this writing, the video of the performance is still posted on YouTube. Watch it while you can! You can still donate here.
- Juliana showed off the needlepoint guitar case her mother made for her. Very sweet and amazing detail. Nice!!
Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!
Do NOT convert to lossy formats (except for personal use)
Please share!
Q Division Studios
Somerville, MA
Live Stream
January 23, 2021
Bed album (acoustic)
01. Down On Me
02. I Want To Want You
03. Swan Song
04. Sneaking Around
05. Backseat
06. Live It Up
07. You Are The Camera
08. Running Out
09. Bad Day
10. Let's Blow it All
11. Waves
12. As If Your Life Depended On It
13. Staying In
14. talk (Q & A)
15. more talk
Tracks 1-10: BED album in it's entirety
Tracks 1-14: will fit on one CD (I split the Q & A talking so you can exclude track 15 so it will fit perfectly on a 80 minute disc, if you are burning)
