"How was Kathleen Hanna last night?"

The Julie Ruin at Lincoln Hall. Photo by me.

I went to see The Julie Ruin last night and today a friend asked me how it was. I previewed the show, and their album is pretty great, soI had high expectations for the show. And I had a really good time and was buzzily glowing in its aftermath.

The next day I'm sitting here thinking about what I loved about the show and realized at one point I kind of just wished Kathleen Hanna would have just done stand-up or a monologue because her banter was hilarious and at times touchingly direct. They are a fun band and it was a good show, but I just kept waiting for them to explode and that never really happened. The energy on the album seems like it'd be easy to translate to stage but I guess it isn't. At times they sounded more like The B-52s more than anything else. I mean, EARLY B-52s, which makes sense, since this is definitely more a party band.

As you can see I was in the thrall of Kathleen Hanna directly after the show last night, raving to friends about it, but as time passes the buzz wears off and I can actually evaluate my actual experience and look at it more critically. At one point I went outside for a cigarette during their set, which means I probably wasn't actually as enthralled as I thought I was. Which is why maybe critics should rush home after a show and write a "review" right away in order to just get it up ASAP, instead of giving it some time and writing an actual review.