Tanya at Irving Plaza in New York City, NY September 6, 1997
Ranier reports:
Juliana AND Tanya -- life's too good.
-j
Ata reports:
It was a top show, wasn't it? I thought it was cool when Juliana ran onstage to bring water to Tanya's guitarist.
Tanya Donelly/Juliana Hatfield at CMJ: Irving Plaza, NYC
Saturday, 6 September
by Ata, Laura and Vinh
The Tanya Donelly and Juliana Hatfield show was one of the highlights of this year's CMJ Festival in New York. For us, it was a highlight because we love Tanya and Fort Apache/Boston area related music; and for general CMJ attendees, it was one of the few shows along with the Geraldine Fibbers that featured major label acts with a bit of credibility.
We arrived at New York City's Irving Plaza venue near Greenwich Village between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. to meet up. Vinh arrived a little earlier because he had been sightseeing in the neighborhood. Laura and her brother, Jon, went in right away to claim spots up front. Vinh and Ata went off for dinner at 7A on Avenue A in the East Village ( a good choice for affordable and good food ).
It was nice to hear people in the crowd discussing Belly, Tanya and Juliana, so at least we knew there were actual "fans" out there in the sea of industry people attending the CMJ shows for an entirely different reason. Laura and Jon saw Tanya and Dean head backstage around 7:45, and Dean congratulated Laura on a job well done on stage in Providence the other day. That made Laura happy.
Juliana went on just after 9:15 p.m. and played basically the same set as she did at the Mercury Lounge a few weeks earlier. Ata thought the Mercury Lounge show was better, but not 100% sure of the reasons. Juliana mentioned she "had a lot of fun" at that show. Ata suspected that she and her band felt more comfortable in a smaller venue (Irving Plaza has a capacity of nearly 2,000 and the Mercury Lounge barely holds 200). The set was made up of a sort of survey of different Juliana periods. Ata didn't remember if she played anything from "Hey Babe," her solo debut, but there were no "Blake Babies" songs. She played "My Sister" from the Juliana Hatfield 3 era, and two or three songs from the yet to be released record. From "Only Everything," she did "Fleur de Lys". The performance was generally good and the band is tight and well practiced.
If anything, Juliana's vocals could have been a bit stronger. Her shows are more enjoyable when done entirely acoustic. She interacted well with the crowd and showed her regrets concerning Princess Di and Mother Theresa by covering the stage with pails of tall flowers.
Tanya was fantastic as usual. She opened with "Acrobat" and played "Low Red Moon" and "Dusted" from the Belly "Star" era. And as a surprise to everyone she played an ACOUSTIC "Feed the Tree" which was very well received by the adoring crowd.
Here is the set list, which Laura obtained after the show:
(Untogether was crossed off at the top)
Acrobat
Low Red Moon
Breathe Around You
Lantern
Bright Light
(These Days was written in by hand next)
Swoon
Human
Dusted
Pretty Deep
Landspeed Song
Clipped
Time of the Season (cover)
And it was during a moving encore when Tanya sang "Mysteries of the Unexplained" and "Feed The Tree", with a twist on the lyrics:
"This old man I used to be /
cut down the tree /
things get broken and things go bust /
ashes to ashes, dust to dust."
She looked great and wore a brown top and greyish blue hip hugging flares with slightly raised chunky black heels. She was full of smiles all night and looked really comfortable. It was a very strong performance to say the least.
After the show, we stuck around at the Galaxy, next door to the club, to have a couple of nightcaps and chat. Vinh and Jon went out to talk to Tanya as she left the club to get on her tour bus. (A Gulfstream camper actually.) Vinh yelled out "Tanya" and introduced himself as the originator of "Vinh's Belly Pages". Tanya had just seen the pages and thanked Vinh with a hug! Vinh was very happy! ( This was his first time meeting Tanya. ) While Jon talked to Tanya, Vinh ran back into the Galaxy to get Laura and Ata. Laura had felt that she had seen Tanya enough and humbly wanted to stay in the restaurant. When Vinh ran back out, Tanya asked "Where's Laura?" At which, Vinh responded with Laura's reason. Tanya smiled and said, "Oh that Laura!" and proceeded into the Galaxy with Vinh and Jon in tow. Tanya gave Laura a big hug and chatted with us for a few minutes before she had to leave.
All in all, it was a great night and we can't think of a better way to have closed out the '97 CMJ.