Juliana Down Garage Tour Kickoff at The Fridge

Juliana Down, one of the region's biggest rock bands, kicked off their garage tour this Saturday night with a performance at The Fridge.

The opening act, The Younglings had an energetic indie rock sequence to warm things up, including a few originals. I did not see them on publicity, but the Force was definitely with them.

After a half-hour break, Juliana Down went onstage. By that time, at least 3 camera crews were in place. Guitarist and vocalist Dia Hassan's belted out JD hits in his well-trained voice. Lead guitarist Sari Ramadan (also a founding member) and bassist Andrew Gibson (who joined a couple of years ago) supported with stirring rock strings, and the new drummer Jeremiah John (who also plays the cajon, incidentally) thundered in the percussion.

This is the first show of a tour that will apparently be similar to what The Foo Fighters did a couple of years ago: organizing concerts on fans' driveways and lawns. Hence, a garage tour. I believe this is a first in these parts, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Sponsors Ray Ban, who supported the gig as part of their Envision Series, chucked a bunch of balloons into the air for the crowd bounce about.

If you missed them this time, you can still check them out at their Fridge Concert Series gig next month. Until then, there's the alt rock festival this Friday at The Music Room.