Wednesday night at The Roxy, Australian singer songwriter Julia Jacklin made her return to LA. Touring in support of 2019 release Crushing, the night was a full on soul bearing, emotion filled, heart-ringer that featured her raw and deep lyrics, a fantastic backing band of Canadian all-stars, and a crowd that was deeply, deeply entranced. It was the first of two LA shows, as she would play the Teragram Ballroom the very next night.
“Don’t Know How To Keep Loving You” from the latest album was an early highlight of the evening featuring a great build and excellent accompaniment from the band. “When The Family Flies In” was an intense tear jerker with just Jacklin’s voice and piano. “Don’t Let The Kids Win’, perhaps the most striking song from debut album of the same name, was a high point of the night, where the depth and vulnerability ingrained in the combination of her lyrics and voice really hits hard. She’ll probably be playing that one forty years from now and crowds will probably still be stopping whatever else they’re doing and listen as intently as they did at The Roxy. It’s an incredible song. Biggest as-the-song-starts-applause of the night award goes to “Pool Party”.
Fun banter moment included Julia Jacklin mentioning going to see Dave Chappelle while in LA for her first ever comedy show. That’s a great one to start with!
The band consisted of Torontoers Ian Kehoe on drums (Formerly of Attack in Black and recently released a solo album), Will Kidman on Keys (From The Constantines), and Ben Whiteley on bass who you might’ve seen in LA before touring with Basia Bulat, The Weather Station, and more. All of those acts are well worth checking out too.
Jacklin has been pretty busy, having put out an album with her Phantastic Ferniture side project in 2018. Let’s hope we hear from her regularly, she’s a real songwriting talent.
Words and photos by Tim Aarons
