Photo of Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner by Laura Jerele
Both Juliana Hatfield and Soul Asylum may be three decades removed from their biggest successes, but you’d never know it from the crowd response to their recent stop together at Delmar Hall. Sure, there wasn’t any moshing or anything, but the audience was excited, appreciative, and, I’m happy to say, the place was packed.
Hatfield took the stage first, sporting a raspberry beret (the kind you find in a secondhand store!) and backed by the other members of the Juliana Hatfield Three (bassist Dean Fisher and drummer Todd Philips) for their first tour in nearly a decade to celebrate the “30th(ish) anniversary” of their breakthrough album, 1993’s Become What You Are. The trio played the album in its entirety, also slipping one more track (“Fleur de Lys” from Hatfield’s 1995 solo album Only Everything) into the middle of the set. But despite how many times I’ve listened to that album (and the rest of Hatfield’s discography) over the years, nothing prepared me for just how loud the Juliana Hatfield Three could be. Hatfield had the distortion and volume both cranked on her guitar, Fisher’s bass rumbled, and Philips’ drums downright thundered. Philips in particular really brought the energy, reminding me of Soundgarden/Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron at times—he hit his drums hard but still maintained finesse and groove.
The added grunginess gave extra power to the stop-start chorus of “This Is the Sound” and boosted the loud-soft dynamics of “Mabel,” particularly in the chugging chorus breakdown. Even hit single “Spin the Bottle” got a boost; while the swirling 5/4 opening verse was suitably jangly, as the song went on it got louder, punkier, snottier, with Hatfield not cooing the vocals like on record but instead downright screaming them. The slow, grungy psychedelia of “President Garfield” amped up the Soundgarden-ish vibes, especially in the middle section as Hatfield’s guitars chugged and Philips’ drums crashed like an avalanche. Several of the guitar solos during the night were a bit sloppy and unformed, but I really dug the solo Hatfield busted out for “President Garfield,” which was really atmospheric with some nice, ringing notes floating over the churning rhythm section. “I Got No Idols” wrapped up the set with a happy accident: Hatfield’s guitar went out of tune during the first verse, and while she muted it to tune, she kept singing over just bass and drums, giving the song a cool twist and a bit of rising action as the song crescendoed into its first chorus.
If their set was supposed to be a nostalgia fest, no one told Soul Asylum: sure, the band did play a whopping six tracks off of their 1992 breakthrough Grave Dancers Union, they also played six tracks off of their brand-new album Slowly but Shirley, which just dropped in September. They wasted no time in getting the nostalgia out of the way, bursting out of the gate with a note-perfect run through “Somebody to Shove” before downshifting into “Misery,” which was slow and pretty in the verses but explosively loud for the choruses. Playing with the crowd, bandleader Dave Pirner led the crowd in a singalong to the song’s prechorus hook “Frustrated, Incorporated” and when the first take wasn’t to his liking, he good-naturedly mouthed “One more!” and gave his hand a little twirl before theatrically cupping it around his ear. I’m happy to report we nailed take two.
It seems only natural to lean into the new material since Soul Asylum is mostly a newer band than you might think: Pirner takes centerstage on vocals and guitar as he has for more than 40 years, and he’s backed by former Prince & the New Power Generation drummer Michael Bland as he has been since the band first reunited almost 20 years ago, but bassist Jeremy Tappero (joined in 2020) and lead guitarist Ryan Smith (joined 2016) are newer commodities. Smith was definitely impressive in his ability to recreate original lead guitarist Dan Murphy’s most wicked solos. But Michael Bland? Holy shit. He may be the greatest drummer I’ve ever witnessed in person. He can do powerful rock with ease, he can groove, he can play as fast as anyone you’ve ever seen while twirling his sticks between each hit. His performance was such a perfect blend of “feel” and technical prowess without ever letting either one hamper the other—his playing was simply perfect in every type of song Pirner had to throw at him and he just made it look so easy.
Really, the entire band sounded incredible, and were clearly having a gas on the stage. Pirner busted a lot of rock moves throughout the night, running around the stage or gassing the crowd or leaning back-to-back with Smith during a solo. Was it ironic or sincere? Who knows, and more importantly, who cares when it’s this much fun? The Soul Asylum sound has a lot more classic rock to it than I think they get credit for, and that was on full display this night, whether it was the Thin Lizzy-ish guitarmonies of “Little Too Clean,” the Tom Petty-style throwback rock of “Bittersweetheart,” or the Zeppelin-esque stomp of “Sucker Maker.” In general, the new songs sat nicely alongside the classic tracks, even if “Sucker Maker” (“or ‘Sucka Make-a,’ if you prefer,” Pirner joked) came off just a bit too goofy. But songs like the punky “Trial by Fire,” the punchy “High Road,” and the short-but-sweet power pop (and two great guitar solos) of “Freak Accident” convinced me to snag a copy of Slowly but Shirley on CD on my way out the door at the end of the night. Money well spent.
The nostalgic vibes kicked back in toward the end of the main set. Pirner was really in the pocket with his vocal performance on “Black Gold,” more concerned with nailing the feeling than recreating the studio version and sounding all the better for it. (Impressively, Pirner’s voice really doesn’t sound like it’s aged a day—he’s always had kind of a reedy warble to his voice, but it sounds exactly the same now as it did in 1992.) Toward the end of the song, in a staged bit, Pirner went to the rear of the stage and took a seat on the drum riser while Tappero and Smith took a seat at his feet. The trio proceeded to play an instrumental bit with an acoustic thrum akin to an Indian raga that slowly built into the song’s final chorus. It was followed quickly by the band’s biggest smash, “Runaway Train,” to loud audience approval. “Just Like Anyone” wrapped up the main set in fast, punky fashion, the end getting faster and faster and faster until it crashed to an end.
As the band returned for an encore, someone held up a sign requesting the 1995 deep cut “String of Pearls.” Unfortunately, Pirner couldn’t read the sign, so he had it handed up to him from the crowd. Before launching into the song, he said “This one’s by request” before cheekily adding “Next time, bring a bigger sign.” Though it’s a pretty lyric-heavy song for an off-the-cuff request, the performance was just as spot-on as any other that night. “April Fool” wrapped up the encore with Sabbath-heavy riffs. The set as a whole was about 80 minutes long but felt just right. | Jason Green
Soul Asylum setlist:
Somebody to Shove
Misery
Trial by Fire
Freeloader
Little Too Clean
Never Really Been
Without a Trace
New World
The Only Thing I’m Missing
High Road
Sucker Maker
Freak Accident
Black Gold
Runaway Train
Bus Named Desire
Bittersweetheart
Just Like Anyone
Encore:
String of Pearls
April Fool
