» Juliette & The Licks 2005 08 08  
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Reviewed by Thomas
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City: Gothenburg, Sweden
Venue: Sticky Fingers
Date: 08 August 2005
Set length: 50 minutes

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Juliette & The Licks

Juliette Lewis is more known as an actress than as a rock star but she is damn good at both trades. She has been in movies like Cape Fear, Gilbert Grape, From Dusk To Dawn, and Kalifornia but is probably most known as Mallory in Natural Born Killers. Juliette & The Licks play what you could call loud rock with punk influences. Comparisons have been made with Iggy Pop and The Stooges and as far as I reckon that seems to be perfectly in order.

When the band enters the stage Juliette Lewis immediately becomes the point of focus and it is as the entire world spins around her for about an hour or so. It is obvious why the band is named Juliette & The Licks and not The Licks & Juliette, because without her not nearly as many would have bothered about this band and this venue wouldn't had been sold out this evening. But with that said I don't want to take anything away from the guys in the band, since you don't get long with only one helluva charismatic and energetic front, you need music to back it up with as well and The Licks, if you don't mind me calling them that, could really deliver and lash it out as well.

It was a pretty intense gig with a lot of energy on stage and you could tell that Juliette Lewis is born to perform, no matter if it is on the big screen or on the stage. She constantly moved around on stage and despite her obnoxious ugly yellow bodysuit she still managed to look sexy and she also did a round of some body surfing towards the end of the show. The rough sound they have on their debut album comes out way much rawer live and even if it sometimes felt like a day on the job for the band, it was a good one. They could have been a bit tighter and her voice cracked a couple of time but apart from that there was nothing wrong with their performance, high intensity from beginning to end.


With only one full-length album and an EP in the back-catalogue they don't have that much to choose from and all of the songs I wanted to hear they played. But nevertheless it was too short, in all they only played for fifty minutes and when they left stage after the two song encore it left you feeling; What? Is this it? Despite the short time it was value for the money with Juliette & The Licks and highlights of the evening was songs like Comin' Around, Shelter Your Needs and most of all So Amazing, which was delivered with such intensity that otherwise only Danko Jones can achieve.

7 chalices of 10

Related links:
www.julietteandthelicks.com