Juliette Lewis
Southampton Talking Heads
19th May, 2009

View: behind tall bloke, as usual

Five dates into a year-long tour and Lewis is already looking the worse for wear, not to mention scary. The disappointing truth is that she doesn’t sing well. The last person to perform so consistently flat was Louise Wener of Sleeper, although Louise wouldn’t have attempted Juliette’s Janis Joplin-style blueswailing on Hard Lovin’ Woman. Even so, she puts on an entertaining show. With a new band that wouldn’t look out of place in your local pub, she has audience empathy in abundance, leaping into the crowd, removing and replacing sunglasses and sparkly veil, leering suggestively, and sweating like a waterfall. Featuring a raft of not very tuneful new songs from Terra Incognita, it’s rock’n’roll and the sardined crowd loves it.

Reviewed by Oliver Gray
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