Concert Review: Juliana Hatfield at Ace of Cups, Columbus, OH (4/30/17)

On the heels of a surprise new album Pussycat, Juliana Hatfield announced a brief tour and Columbus was announced as one of the lucky stops. My wife and I don’t always mesh on our musical tastes, but Juliana is one where we overlap, myself being a fan since discovering her on the Only Everything album.

Even though it’s been around for awhile, this was only my second trek to Ace of Cups. We arrived early and secured a pair of stools along the second floor balcony with a perfect view of the stage. Not only does it give us a grant vantage point, my feet don’t want to punch me after standing in place for two hours.

Juliana came out swinging with the classic Juliana Hatfield Three track “I Got No Idols.” What became quickly apparent was this was going to be rock show – her guitar was loud and she riffed like a kid raised on Black Sabbath as much as R.E.M. It was a delight to see her joke with the crowd and tear off ripping leads, and then have her dial it down on classics like “Spin The Bottle.”