Concert Review
Soul Asylum
Juliana Hatfield Three
Center For The Arts Of Homer
Homer, NY
Friday October 25, 2024
Review/Photos: Joseph Suto
Soul Asylum is currently in the midst of a headlining tour supporting their latest new release Slowly But Shirley. They landed in Homer, NY of all of the places to play much to the delight of the sold out crowd. The band are fresh off a tour with Stone Temple Pilots and Live that ended on September 15. They barely had much time to rehearse for their next tour which started up on September 26 and runs through November 4.
The show began with a tape of “The Love Boat Theme” which was played as a tribute to its singer Jack Jones who passed away two days prior. From there the traditional opener “Somebody To Shove” started the show off with the energy it brings as the band goes right into the smash “Misery”. A sure fire way to kick off the evening as the band mixed in a slew of songs from its latest album with “The Only Thing I’m Missing”, “High Road” and “Freak Accident” being the highlights.
The band is extremely tight at this point. With vocalist/guitarist Dave Pirner being the last man standing from the initial lineup, he surely has assembled a lineup that stands on its own merit. Guitarist Ryan Smith has been around since 2016 and is the longest tenured current member after Pirner. Bassist Jeremy Tappero jumped aboard in 2020 with drummer Jerry Pentecost hopping on for the last couple of tours. Longtime drummer Michael Bland who played on the latest album had prior commitments.
The one good thing about Soul Asylum is the amount of material they have to choose from. They dug up a few gems that they hadn’t been played much over the past few years. Among those were “Bus Named Desire” from the Silver Lining, “String of Pearls” and of course “Without A Trace”. The set list flowed nicely as the new material fit in perfectly among the bands older catalog.
Things are certainly looking up for the band as not only were they finally able to get on a long deserved shed tour package, the new album has received high praise as well. Hopefully the band tends to tour some more in 2025 to deliver the goods to some of the ares they missed in 2024. Slowly But Shirley is perhaps the bands finest album since the 1990s. Pirner, who has always written 99% of the material is back with some of his best material. We highly recommend the new album but urge you also to check out the tour should it come anywhere nearby your area.
Opening the show was the Juliana Hatfield Three who played their 1993 album Become What You Are in it’s entirety. Just a wonderful night of music and performances that were top notch by both bands.
Soul Asylum
Juliana Hatfield 3
Set List
Soul Asylum
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
Juliana Hatfield Three
Supermodel
My Sister
This Is the Sound
For the Birds
Mabel
Fleur De Lys
Addicted
Feelin’ Massachusetts
Spin the Bottle
President Garfield
Little Pieces
I Got No Idols
