Photo by Greg Cristman
Gregory R. Cristman

Juliana Hatfield Three played Bowery Ballroom with Potty Mouth (pics, setlist)

photos by Greg Cristman

Juliana Hatfield Three @ Bowery Ballroom 3/1/2015
Juliana Hatfield Three

“Become What You Are” remains a solid, accurate snapshot of that brief, yet much-storied period of the 1990s when women playing dirt-smudged, yet catchy pop had a foothold on rock radio. (Hatfield pointed out early on in the evening that the trio’s last show on their only tour had taken place on Feb. 28, 1994 — almost 21 years prior.) Hatfield’s guitar crunch animates songs like the menacing “Dame With A Rod” and the disaffected “Feelin’ Massachusetts,” but her self-aware yet vulnerable lyrics pack the real punch. “Spin The Bottle,” which achieved minor radio notoriety (thanks in part to its association with the slacker rom-com “Reality Bites”), uses the titular game of romantic exploration to skewer the dating world and a shy person’s place in it; on “President Garfield,” Hatfield repeats the phrase “I’m sayin’ somethin’ really deep” so incessantly to make the listener wonder who, exactly, the song’s narrator is trying to convince of that fact. – [Boston Globe]

The reunited Juliana Hatfield Three played their first NYC show since the ’90s at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom on Sunday (3/1) which was the third date of their tour which both celebrates new album Whatever, My Love and also has the band playing their classic Become What You Are in full. Hatfield and her band sounded like they picked up where they left off, and sounded great. The above review is from their Cambridge, MA homecoming show a few days earlier.

Openers for the show were Potty Mouth. Appropriate because they’re also from the Boston area and clearly owe a sonic (and possibly lyrical) debt to Juliana Hatfield.  Unfortunately, the snow we got on Sunday turned their drive from New Hampshire into an 11-hour ordeal that had them not getting to the club until a half-hour after their scheduled start time — at which point they basically jumped on stage, plugged in and started playing.

More pictures of both bands, and JH3’s setlist, below…

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Potty Mouth

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

Juliana Hatfield Three

SETLIST: Juliana Hatfield Three @ Bowery Ballroom 3/1/2015
‘Become What You Are’ performed in full
Supermodel
My Sister
This Is the Sound
For the Birds
Mabel
A Dame With a Rod
Addicted
Feelin’ Massachusetts
Spin the Bottle
President Garfield
Little Pieces
I Got No Idols

Second set:
Everybody Loves Me But You
Dumb Fun
Push Pin
If I Could
I’m Shy
Fleur de Lys