I know, I know, it has taken me 6 days to complete this blog, but I am dam busy- hard to believe I know. No matter, the sweet taste/smell/sound of Juliette and her Licks are still fresh in my mind. Honestly, I had only heard that she has a band a year ago in NYC, my Jewish friend, Seth Abrams, who is very good friends with the band H20 told me about Juliette and the Licks, that they were playing in NYC and he wanted to bring me but at the last minute, it fell through, blah blah, apparently it was sold out as fuck and I couldn't be bothered to try to work/con/beg my way in, so I missed the show. Seth said it was amazing and I now know that was an understatement. I formed my band just this past April and was told by a few that I remind them of Juliette and I hadn't seen any of her videos or even heard any of her songs. Now that I have seen/heard her, I though "fuck it, why even bother! I will just throw in the towel right now, no point in even trying". This woman RULES Rock and Roll (and even Punk). She does stuff on stage I wouldn't dare do, things I couldn't do, things David Lee Roth did in his prime, things Iggy Pop tried to do. "She will rock you" (see the Rolling Stone magazine cover she graced).
When I showed Juliette this picture I printed out for her to sign ^ I said "I hope your band isn't upset that I just have a picture of you instead of the whole band" she smiled and said "oh please, they are SO used to 'the Juliette show' ". She is sooooo funny, I was laughing my ass off the whole night..
I massaged some of the band before Juliette even arrived. They were on a tiny Promo tour and were already all knotted up, tired and stressed out. They are NOT getting special treatment, they are paying their dues like all bands do. Living on 3 hours of sleep a day, riding in buses instead of sleeping in hotels and yes, barely getting paid.
I know Juliette from her films, From Dusk til Dawn, Hysterical Blindness (my favorite), What's eating Gilbert Grape, California, Natural Born Killers and Cape Fear, etc etc…she has done about 50 films in 8 years, I think she is a work-o-holic. It seems she has just put the movie star career on the back burner to focus 100% on the Rock star career. It was a big risk and for the life of me, I can't think of another actor/actress that has done it successfully, but she is on her way to being the next female icon. I won't dare compare her to Janis Joplin, as Juliette is of course hotter, very modern, very very flexible and she stage dives, head first, then crowd surfs without fear, something Janis nor any other female rock/pop star has done, to my knowledge. She flirts with the audience sometimes in between songs and everyone, even females, melt.
She couldn't have chosen a better band to back her, they are tight and in person, are super cool, no attitudes, no ego's just great musicians (oh, they are all hot too, but that's besides the point completely).
Set list ^
This is Todd, formerly of H20 (just google it ok?). Seth lives or lived in the same building as Todd ^ in NYC. Todd is calm, cool, collected and extreme eye candy. The band has her back, the click so well together.
Kemble, is also extreme eye candy ^ , is very polite and friendly and WAILS on guitar!
The drummer is fairly new, not sure why they changed drummers, but this one learned all of their songs in 3 weeks. His name is Ed ^ and he is from Austin, Texas. I totally kicked his ass; wonder if he could move properly the next day.. but he needed it. Drummers always need deep tissue massage, more than anyone else in the band…
< Kemble in action
I did get a new camera – a bigger and better Sony cyber shot with 7.2 mega pixels, but still, it's not the best camera for onstage shots.
The band came out in full force and never let up. They had the crowd going mad, they were slam dancing so wildly that even I was getting crushed and tossed around and I was waaaay up front on the side near the amplifier (my ears are still ringing). She brings out the crazy fucking Indian in you, she makes you want to play, get sweaty and just ROCK.
It must have been hard when she first started out with her band, I can imaging the critics bashing her before she even started "oh great, another star wanting to change careers". But I am sure they have eaten their words now, as if you hear her sing, you can't imagine why she ever chose a career doing anything else. Even if being a Rock star for a while was a role she wanted to try out, she has become THAT rock star, she IS the REAL DEAL.
I imagined since she is such a well know movie star that she would have a big hair and make up crew on tour with her, body guards and personal assistants to grant her every wish. I was dead wrong. She has NONE of those. Paul, the tour manager, takes good care of her. He, by the way, multi tasks, he does tour/production and personally catches her when she is done body surfing. Juliette is lucky to be surrounded by so many great people who all care about her and want to help make this Rock and Roll journey work like a charm.
^ If you watch closely, you will see Paul (big blonde man) helping Juliette after her crowd surfing
Juliette spoke to me while we all had dinner in the catering room as if she knew me for years. She makes you feel welcome and comfortable. Actually, she is pretty much exactly how I imagined she would be, similar to the role she played in "What's eating Gilbert Grape". Laid back, FUN, cute as hell and sexy without even trying.
Everyone is drawn to her and her irresistible charisma. She is NO DIVA, she is the opposite, a pure rock chick , running around without any make up, worn out jeans and an old YES concert t-shirt on, before and after the show. She wanted her scalp and feet done before the show and when I was doing her feet, she said when her band makes it big, and she can afford me, she wants to bring me on the road to massage her every day. For me, that is the biggest compliment *sigh*.. I am still purring. I did warn her that she would want to marry me when she tried my foot massage. She was really loving it (note to men: I TOLD you, ALL women want is their fucking FEET DONE properly, so get busy).
After the show I massaged her again… she was really ill that night, a cold and living off of 3 hours of sleep over the last few days.
She still looks amazing in my opinion, not that she cares, she is SO not into the whole hair and make up thingy. She carries her own bags and didn't make any demands at all.
The band did a rather long meet and greet after the show even though they were dead tired. She posed with people for pictures and signed loads of autographs like a champ.
Watching her and seeing how much work this REALLY involves ( I have seen it for years, but watching her do it from scratch was different). I really saw first had what it takes to keep a band going, it's SO MUCH WORK, it actually turned me off wanting to take my band to the next level. Touring is HELL and it takes so much out of you. I felt sorry for the whole band and wish I could have gave them SLEEP as a present on top of the brutal massages. I over heard her mention that she just turned down a HBO series, which would have been amazing for her career, to keep working with her band. She said "I'm gonna ride this thing until the fucking wheels fall off!!!". Now THAT is Rock and Roll.
Their two month tour started yesterday (see the dates below) and if they are heading to a town near you, please go check them out, you won't believe your eyes and ears.
These pictures are from their myspace page ^ you can hear my favorite song of theirs American Boy on there…check it!
Sep 26 2006 8:00
Concorde 2 Brighton
Sep 27 2006 8:00
Astoria London
Sep 28 2006 8:00
MDH Manchester
Sep 29 2006 8:00
Leadmill Sheffield
Okt 2 2006 8:00
Rescue Rooms Nottingham
Okt 3 2006 8:00
The Village Dublin
Okt 4 2006 8:00
ABC Glasgow
Okt 5 2006 8:00
Metropolitan University Leeds
Okt 8 2006 8:00
Backstage Werk Munich
Okt 10 2006 8:00
New Estragon Bologna
Okt 11 2006 8:00
Rolling Stone Milano
Okt 12 2006 8:00
Usine Geneva
Okt 13 2006 8:00
Cooperative de Mai Clermont-Ferrand
Okt 14 2006 8:00
Vents Des Suds Toulouse
Okt 16 2006 8:00
Sala Apolo Barcelona
Okt 17 2006 8:00
Sala Arena Madrid
Okt 18 2006 8:00
Kafe Antzokia Bilbao
Okt 20 2006 8:00
Trabendo Paris
Okt 21 2006 8:00
Den Atelier Luxembourg City
Okt 22 2006 8:00
Uebel & Gefaehrlich Hamburg
Okt 23 2006 8:00
Pumpehuset Copenhagen
Okt 25 2006 8:00
Folken Stavenger
Okt 26 2006 8:00
John Dee Oslo
Okt 28 2006 8:00
Trädgårn Gothenburg
Okt 29 2006 8:00
KB Malmo
Okt 30 2006 8:00
Debaser Medis Stockholm
Okt 31 2006 8:00
Platensbar Linkoping
Nov 4 2006 8:00
Palladium Warsaw
Nov 5 2006 8:00
Roxy Prague
Nov 7 2006 8:00
Coccon Club Frankfurt
Nov 8 2006 8:00
Gloria Koln
Nov 9 2006 8:00
Starclub Dresden
Nov 10 2006 8:00
Riff Bochum
Nov 11 2006 8:00
Karlstorbahnhof Heidelberg
Nov 13 2006 8:00
Paradiso Amsterdam
Nov 14 2006 8:00
Solus Bar Cardiff
Nov 15 2006 8:00
Wedgewood Rooms Portsmouth
Nov 16 2006 8:00
University Newcastle
My friend (right) Fabi and his girlfiend (left) are soooooo smitten with Juliette. They begged me to introduced them. Fabi helped produce
a song for my band and he is super cool, so I did. This picture cracks me up, it looks like Fabi is punching his girl in the face. lol.
I took this shot of the band just minutes after they got off stage.. Juliette is so low maintenance, so naturally beautiful.
^ Jason, the bass player is the only one I didn't get a solo picture of, he was really busy with his new lap top, and I came to this conclusion about Rock stars, Lap tops are
the main reason modern day rock/pop stars stay out of trouble now a days. They now have something constructive to do before and after the show, surf online, mainly on myspace.com. Whereas years ago, before the internet / Lap tops were so popular and easy to get, the artist would be bored out of their minds on tour, as they are only on stage for 2 hours, what the FUCK else do you expect them to do the other 22 hours? No wonder Jimi, Janis, Keith, Jim and co. all partied too hard, it's fucking boring waiting around for show time. So in some perverted way, the internet has saved Rock and Roll. Amen.