The Australian singer-songwriter returned to Nottingham as part of her sold-out UK tour, with local favourite supporting...
Part-way through her set Julia Jacklin explains that the last time she was in this room she played to around 10 people. What a difference a few months make; following the release of her warmly received and highly praised debut album at the end of 2016, her current UK tour is pretty much sold out, including tonight’s show in Nottingham.
Support for Jacklin’s latest visit comes from Nottingham’s very own Keto. Taking to the stage in her hometown, and accompanied by Rob Rosa on Violin, Leah Sinead plays a set of hushed indie-folk that’s full of bittersweet melodies and gentle laments. A stripped back performance, it serves to amplifies Sinead’s magical songwriting abilities and rich voice; gentle melodies that appear to be effortlessly conjured-up grow and intertwine. Tracks from Keto’s current EP What We Do feature, including a yearning Jackie with Rosa’s swirling violin amplifying the way the song tugs at your heart, recent single Superstar, before finishing off with a defiant take on the EP’s title track. The perfect mood-setter for tonight’s headline act.
Julia Jacklin’s debut album, Don’t Let The Kids Win, is an absorbing combination of dreamy alt. country and Jacklin’s reverb-soaked vocals. It contains the kind of songwriting that feels timeless, but with obvious nods to the past. As you would expect much of the album is performed tonight alongside a collection of non-album tracks and songs that are new to my ears.
Armed with a Telecaster, Jacklin and her band kick off their set with the woozy slow burner Hay Plain, the song slowly builds up, with the musicians finding and settling into their groove. Tinged with a hazy country twang, Jacklin’s songs tend to jump between a sort of shuffling, waltzing alt. country, with her band breezily helping to push the songs along, and a low-key folky introspection. She switches between performing with her band and performing solo, but whichever way she does it, tonight’s enthusiastic Friday night crowd are transfixed from beginning to end.
Songs such as LA Dream have a swooning sadness about them, while Coming of Age, which is dropped in near the end of her set, jangles with a rousing energy. Finishing with a spine-chilling solo rendition of Don’t Let The Kids Win that has Jacklin crooning like an old-time country singer, it’s a beautiful moment. For the encore, Julia Jacklin and her band return to the stage to take apart The Strokes' Someday and re-build it as a wistful ballad. The original does nothing for me, but this is strangely moving. It is a satisfying and apt way to close the night.
Julia Jacklin and Keto were at The Bodega on Friday 24 February 2017.
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