Juliette and The Licks @ Cornerstone Berkeley 7/19/2018

Juliette Lewis and the Licks @ Cornerstone Berkeley 7/19/2018
photo by Nikki DeMartini 

For the last 15 years Juliette Lewis has brought her talent from the screen to the stage and last Thursday night Juliette and the Licks rocked Cornerstone Berkeley.

In 2016, after an 8 year hiatus, Juliette and the Licks announced and conquered a North American tour. Since then they don't really "tour" they announce a handful of shows and they go out and play them whenever they feel like it. It's been two years since they played The Independent in SF and tickets to their show in Berkeley last week sold-out.

Juliette Lewis and the Licks @ Cornerstone Berkeley 7/19/2018
photo by Nikki DeMartini 

The show started around 8:30 with local garage rockers, Toy Guitar and Juliette and The Licks on closer to 9:30. Trailing behind the four guys who make up the Licks, the star of the show made her way front and center to a room full of cheers. It was cool to see her rocking one of the Evel Knievel inspired jumpsuits seen in so many pictures of her at their shows, press photos and the cover of Four on the Floor live and in action. She lost her headband scarf in less than a minute on stage and was quick to kick off her pointy, white leather, kitten heel boots as she raged. Head banging, deep back bends and jumping up and down will do that but that didn't slow the movie star turned rock star down, not even for a second.



The Licks busted out song after song in accordance with their fearless leader who seriously rocked out to every song. There wasn't too much movement in the crowd but Juliette had that covered with her firecracker antics: kicks, jumps, back bends, head banging, drum banging, stage diving and crowd surfing! Juliette Lewis drips entertainment.
The dark, smaller capacity venue was a perfect pairing for a larger than life rock band like this: the garage rock/punk thrived in the setting.

Juliette Lewis and the Licks @ Cornerstone Berkeley 7/19/2018
photo by Nikki DeMartini 

An out of breath Juliette conversed with the crowd more than I thought she would have, showing us how cool and real she really is. She introduced her bandmates, gave some history about the band and shared her age encouraging fans not to give up on their dreams no matter how "old" you are which is really inspiring.
With more new music rumored, Juliette and the Licks filled the night with tracks from their two albums plus a rockin' rendition of Tina Turner's classic "Rolling on the River" (Proud Mary).

Juliette Lewis and the Licks @ Cornerstone Berkeley 7/19/2018
photo by Nikki DeMartini 

Juliette Lewis rocks the role of rockstar from her performance, outfit, attitude and fan interaction she's an explosion of energy that's really fun to watch.  Keep an eye out for the next round of Juliette and the Licks show announcements.