Juliette Lewis
Special Guest Joe Perry
Sun Life Stadium, Miami Dolphins Tailgate
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Better Than: The Dolphins
Last night, the Miami Dolphins lost--the Bears shut them out, actually. And believe it or not, Crossfade was at the game. However, nothing about the NFL's Thursday night marketing scheme felt like football. We mingled with celebrities, watched a legendary guitar hero solo near Gate F, and partied at LIV...Oh, in Miami Gardens, of all places. WTF?
Well before kick-off--inside a lavish Florida Marlins conference room-turned-green room--a barefoot Juliette Lewis sat Indian style on a plush leather boardroom table chair and chatted with us. She was sweating, wiping the moisture off her face and the back of her neck with a small towel. Moments earlier, she and Joe Perry shared a stage outside Sun Life Stadium for an afternoon sound check.
"To have a rock and roll legend--such a guitar player, like, with the most amazing feel--play on a song I wrote, is next to heaven," Lewis said.
Perry accompanied the brilliantly talented rock vocalist on "Hard Lovin' Woman," a bluesy track Janis Joplin could've sang back in the day. "You'd think, 'oh the blues,' and 'it's not contemporary,' blah, blah, blah," she said, "that's bullshit. The pinnacle of each show is when we play that song."
Lewis spent the better part of last year touring, but lately she's been juggling "little one-off gigs here and there," and promoting a string of critically acclaimed films she's starring in. But it was the second time in three months Lewis played Miami.
In late August, she played at Bardot, and now has a firm grasp of the Miami music scene. "I can equate (playing Miami) to sort of playing in Italy," she said. "Miami, like Italy, is not really known for its love of rock and roll. But I'm always determined to make any crowd a lover."
That she did. During the mini-concert later in the evening, Lewis introduced her special guest to the crowd gathered around Land Shark Tailgate Stage as he casually walked on stage smoking a cigarette. The two kicked into "Hard Lovin' Woman," which brilliantly displayed Lewis's vocal range, as well as the "fiery spirit" she interjects into to each of her live shows. And Perry's guitar work served as a beautiful compliment to Lewis's commanding vocals.
It was also Lewis's first NFL experience. "I'm not going to lie," she told us, "I'm not against being a sports fan, I'm just not knowledgeable." Well, neither are people in the Magic City. Just remember, Fins up!
A Miami Dolphins football game closely resembles South Beach, even though Sun Life is nowhere near the ocean. Limousines, celebrities, paparazzi, they're all present, as is LIV nightclub.
After watching Perry and Lewis, we managed to sneak past security and into the stadium tunnel. We were denied field access and missed kicked off. Defeated and disillusioned, we thought our night was over. But then a light bulb went off--a strobe light, to be exact--when we found an elevator.
We rode the electric box to the club level and reached the orange velvet ropes of LIV Sun Life Stadium. Besides a poorly laminated New Times press pass and a blue vendor badge that gave us general stadium access, we had nothing that guaranteed entrance into the club--story of our life, doorman.
Thankfully, LIV loves Crossfade and after a brief discussion about our intentions, they let us in. Was Lil Wayne there? Maybe. Did the girls from the Hills show up? Perhaps. And local Latin pop group Los Primeros, they were there, we'll confirm that. But out of respect for the club, we didn't take any pictures. Instead, we kept our Nikon in a bag and rubbed elbows with A-to-C list celebrities, ridiculously attractive supermodels, and Miami's business elite.
We didn't splurge on a magnum of Grey Goose--every good Cabana was taken--but we did kick back a few $9 Heinekens. When in Rome, right? At some point, there was a football game just outside our window, but we were too busy dancing on couches and dropping the we're "I'm with New Times" line to every female that walked by with fake titties popping out of their Marino jersey. How'd Thigpen do?
Critics Notebook:
Personal Bias: The Other Sister is one of our favorite movies.
The Crowd: Dol-fans?
Overheard: At LIV, "Thigpen fumbled? Nobody gives a shit here; people are dancing on couches."
Set List:
"Tick Honey"
"Terra Incognita"
"Hard Lovin' Woman" with Joe Perry
"Boom Boom" (The Animals cover) with Joe Perry
