Review: Juliette Lewis Brings Powerful Performance to Chop Suey
I knew and respected Juliette Lewis‘ work as an actress for years, but I’ve never seen her perform live as a singer. I was very curious to check her show out at Chop Suey in Seattle and see what all the fuss was about. I started the night early at the packed venue enjoying a beer in the Den listening to Andy Clockwise opening the Tuesday show. His performance was a great setup for what was going to follow from Juliette. High-energy rock show that only got louder with each song. It was a fun set; be sure to look him up.
A little past 10, the suspense grew for the singer to take the stage and it got warm in the front. Before the set started, security had to remove someone pushing people around, calming the crowd down, or at least trying. When she stepped on stage, everyone went wild, and she didn’t waste any time hyping everyone up. She rocked out and immediately started a long count of hair flips, which lasted throughout the night.
The singer sang a variety of her songs, including “Fantasy Bar,” “Hard Lovin’ Woman,” “Suicide Dive Bombers” – a track off her solo debut 2009 release Terra Incognita – as well as older tracks “American Boy,” “Hot Kiss,” and “Mind Full of Daggers.” The band also played newer tracks in the form of “Hello Hero” and “Any Way You Want,” along with a whole host of covers towards the last half-hour of the show. It’s fair to say that the woman knows how to put on a show, and she does it well. You may not be getting her latest record, but the live performance is worth checking out.
I was watching her from the right side of the stage as people were getting a little aggressive towards the front, and as she was completely into the song, she also looked up to see what was happening. Instead of calling attention to the people and telling them to stop, she reached out to a girl on the floor and took her on stage with her to sing the song. I thought that was pretty cool of her. She also jumped down during the encore to sing with everyone, and acquired a cool hat that one of the fans was wearing, which she took back on stage for the last song.
The show was as rock as you could imagine the ’80s to be; Juliette was wearing tight pants, a leotard, leather jacket, bandanna, and red makeup below her eyes when she came onstage. She mentioned that she was feeling a little sentimental, as this was the second-to-last show of her 2016 tour, which she was so grateful for. She also thanked the crowd standing in the sold-out venue for following her along in her musical venture and for supporting her. It was a great show to see live.
