Julia Jacklin with There’s a Tuesday at The Powerstation, 9th March 2023 (Concert Review)

Julia Jacklin – with a commanding voice and delicate lyrics, an evening with Julia is an ethereal experience. Robin Kearns shares this review.

Fittingly, on International Women’s Day two female-fronted acts occupy the Powerstation stage. It was a very different Julia Jackson performance to her last Auckland visit. And a local band, with two young front-women were in fine voice.

There’s a Tuesday

First up are There’s a Tuesday. We’re treated to rolling rhythms and melodies that paper over lyrics speaking to the angst inherent to their age. Girl at Njght wanders through the uncertainty of a journey home alone. But fun pervades the set and Bus Stop offers summery sounds for the season we’ve only half had.

They are a four-piece originally from Christchurch: fronted by Nat Hutton and Minnie (alongside Gus Murray on drums and Joel Becker on bass).  A percussive, guitar-driven sound with delicious melodies and catchy hooks. Close your eyes and there are moments of hearing a little of Liz Stokes of The Beths.

Their splendid harmonies and dreamy pop sound was delivered with smiles. This band is totally enjoying being on stage. And it isn’t even a Tuesday.

Julia Jacklin

To excited applause, Julia Jacklin makes her way to single spot-lit mic in what must be the most spectacular dress worn on the Powerstation stage. Puffed out in red and white, replete with ribbons and bows, there’s a hint of Tudor grandeur. And fitting for her commanding presence.

This is a very different Jacklin show to last time she was in Auckland. There she was solo, indie-folk in manner, sharing intimacies with the assembled. Here she fills the stage (with her band of four), opening with the deliberate strum of Be Careful, full-voiced, tipping her head back to extend her vocals.

Next up, To Perth, Before the Border Closes. The long shadow of Covid perhaps. She greets us with “It’s a bit steamy in here isn’t it?”. Yes, it sure is. A sold-out crowd on a mild autumn night.

She’s a rock star tonight with tracks like Pool Party.

The easy apprehension of her lyrics when performing solo is traded off tonight for a full band sound. As was the case last year when Lucy Dacus played here. No worries. The studio tracks will always be there. Tonight it’s the full emotion-laden delivery with soaring vocals.

Pre-Pleasure, her 2022 album release, is the focus and the crowd all seem to know its second track Love, Try Not To Let Go with its thunderous chorus. Julia trades guitar for a pair of claves which click the song to a close.

The ominous bass and drum beat heralds Body. Her capo’s down the fret.  (‘Do you still have that photograph?/ Would you use it to hurt me?/ I guess it’s just my life/And it’s just my body’). A 21^st century feminist take on youthful vulnerability. Her use of tambourine suggests a brittle heartbeat. So too with I was Neon (‘I quite like the person that I am/Am I gonna lose myself again?’). The risk of compromising oneself that social situations bring. She narrates the contours of social uncertainty so well.

For Ignore Tenderness, she sheds guitar and takes the mic, prowling the stage. There’s a hint of cabaret with that supercharged voice

Who went to a Catholic School? she asks. A surprisingly large number of hands go up. Lydia Wears a Cross (‘Seated in rows/Knees and eyes closed I felt pretty’). Lost innocence, nostalgia maybe. Arms and hands extended, preacher-like.

Nat and Minnie of the Tuesdays return to join Julia for the rollicking Head Alone, which reprises something of the Me Too message (‘I don’t want to be touched all the time/I raise my body up to be mine’).

The main set ends with Pressure To Party and, ironically, perhaps with the Powerstation awash in alcohol, she sings ‘Nothing good can come from me drinking’. Subtexts of be true to yourself pervade a Julia Jacklin show.

But there’s one more song. A stark, solo rendition of Comfort. A break-up song, crafted with tenderness.

And that’s the paradox of Julia Jacklin. A commanding voice and delivery, but delicate lyrics probing the recesses of intimacy with self and others.  Ethereal and powerful as a friend remarked afterwards.

Robin Kearns

Click any icon to view a full gallery of photos of each artist. Photos by Veronica McLaughlin.

Julia Jacklin

There’s a Tuesday

Set Lists

There’s a Tuesday

1. Bus Stop
2. Dandelions
3. Nightmare
4. Half Bad
5. Girl at Night
6. BB Blue

Julia Jacklin

1. 1. Be Careful
   2. To Perth, Before the Border Closes
   3. Pool Party
   4. Love, Try not to let go
   5. Moviegoing
   6. Body
   7. Ignore Tenderness
   8. End of a Friendship
   9. Turn Me Down
   10. Don’t Know How to Keep Loving You
   11. Lydia Wears a Cross
   12. I was Neon
   13. Head Alone
   14. Pressure to party
   15. Comfort