Date: Fri 29-Sep-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A-10

Quick Words:

Radio-104-Day-Off-Belly-Jewel

Full Text:

Modern Rock's Big Day Off

(with photos)

By Shannon Hicks

HARTFORD - It never rains when you're home sick.

When you have to stay home, in bed, with a dry, hacking cough, watery eyes,

aches and pains, take a look out the window and chances are the sun is

shining. Cable-TV is probably out, and so is the sun.

It's when you call in sick, play hookey, that it rains. Hard.

So it was probably no surprise that last Thursday dawned cloudy and stayed

that way all day. Radio 104, the new modern rock station in Hartford, held an

all-day music festival - the Radio 104 Big Day Off - and the weather was

lousy.

It was a simple premise for what turned out to be a great event, however: ten

bands for ten bucks. Ten of today's wildest, fastest-climbing, most popular

groups and solo acts in the "alternative" vein for a $10 (more or less)

ticket. Much bally-hooed by the sponsoring radio station as one of the best

reasons to call in sick for a day ("but don't tell your boss we told you to"),

groups of high school and college students took this advice and spent most of

the afternoon and well into the night watching the likes of Dandelion, Smoking

Popes, Belly and Juliana Hatfield, and six others.

Jewel was one of the highpoints of the afternoon, although it should be

pointed out that none of the performers put on a bad set. An artist who spent

a full year of her young life living out of a VW camper-van, Jewel now

enthralls audiences with her witty lyrics, charming voice and appealing

personality.

Joan Osborne, fresh from her stint as part of the HORDE Tour, returned to the

Meadows for the festival. Looking very 70s and sounding very much like Bonnie

Raitt's best student, Osborne manages to carry a style of her own and the

crowd enjoyed her set very easily, with its songs about everything from gifts

from mothers, Ray Charles, and, of course, God.

Letters To Cleo, a quintet that came out of Boston - by way of "Melrose Place"

- is doing well with its first full album ("Here & Now," that song of songs

that put these guys and gal on the map, is found on the Melrose Place

soundtrack, not the band's new album).

Belly and Juliana Hatfield were easily two of the most-anticipated acts of the

day. Hatfield was spotted playing Frisbee with some fans during the afternoon,

continuing to build on a reputation that has her as one of the most

fan-friendly musicians in the biz today. And when Belly took the stage, look

out!

Tanya Donelly has one of the best voices around, not to mention one of the

most recognizable. Problems with the band's stage set-up (instruments and

wiring seemed to daunt the band through the opening songs) were dealt with

professionally, meaning Donnelly dealt with them while she and the rest of the

band got through their songs, which included "Red," "Super-Connected" and

"King," all off the spectacular sophomore album King , and of course, "Feed

The Tree," from the debut album of two years ago, Star .

The second-to-last show of the inaugural outdoor season at the Meadows Music

Theatre (REM concludes the summer season this Sunday; a few tickets are still

available), Radio 104's Big Day Off was definitely a cool way to spend a day

off. The weather wasn't the greatest, but aside from the cloudy skies and

muggy atmosphere for a while late in the afternoon, it was still a great

festival of music.

Where else can you find such an eclectic sampling of talent for such a low

price? From beginning to finish, the Big Day Off consisted of sets from

Supergrass, The Innocence Mission, Seven Mary Three, Dandelion, Jewel, Smoking

Popes, Joan Osborne, Letters To Cleo, Belly, and Juliana Hatfield.

And it never did rain at the Meadows last Thursday. There must have been a

great force field around the venue, because it rained everywhere else in the

area... the rain held off until The Big Day After.