Julie - St Lukes 17/03/2025

If this show is anything to go by, the skys the limit for julie.

Some gigs leave your ears ringing. Others leave your bones vibrating. But the best ones? They shake something deeper-something visceral, something wired into the part of you that needs music like oxygen. julies set at St. Lukes was one of those gigs.

St. Lukes is a venue that immediately commands attention. A former church built in 1836, its grand stained-glass windows and towering ceilings add an air of gothic drama to any gig, and for a night steeped in heavy distortion and ethereal noise, the setting couldnt have been more perfect.

Kicking things off were local five-piece Kilgour, a band with a rapidly growing reputation in Glasgows underground scene. Though the frontman, Fionn Crossan, hails from Belfast (appropriate for a St. Paddys Day show), the band has embedded itself in the citys vibrant music community, earning praise from the likes of BBC Scotlands Billy Sloan.

Theres something satisfyingly raw about their sound-slow, droning guitars weaving into moments of discordant noise, a grunge-meets-shoegaze aesthetic that at times felt like Pavement jamming with My Bloody Valentine. Set It Alight was a highlight, its driving bassline adding an urgent pulse to the woozy distortion, while Solar Head leaned into strange tunings and deep, guttural effects that felt perfectly suited to the venues cavernous acoustics. Their sound is still evolving, but theyre already carving out a space in Glasgows ever-competitive music scene. Theyll be back at King Tuts on March 29, and based on this performance, theyre well worth seeing again.

Between sets, a touch of Mozart piped through the speakers-a surreal yet fitting interlude, the delicate melodies heightening the sense of anticipation before the main event. Then, without warning, the lights cut out. The room plunged into darkness, and a low-frequency phasing sound rippled across the space like an air raid siren from another dimension. It was a jumpscare of an intro, and just as suddenly, julie erupted into a wall of noise.

Promoting their new album My Anti-Aircraft Friend, the LA trio wasted no time in pulling the crowd into their sonic maelstrom. Very Little Effort, Clairbourne Practice, Flutter-each song built on the last, a relentless wave of feedback-laden chaos. Theyre a band that wears their influences on their sleeves-theres Sonic Youth in the jagged edges, Autolux in the brittle, metallic guitar tones, and My Bloody Valentine in the way their sound seems to collapse in on itself before surging forward again. But for all their 90s-coded aesthetics, nothing about julie feels nostalgic. Its immediate, its physical, it rattles your ribcage.

And yet, they barely spoke. No crowd banter, no introductions-just pure, hypnotic performance. It wasnt until nearly an hour in that the first words were uttered: a simple, deadpan "Hello Scotland", immediately followed by an ear-splitting blast of feedback.

Not that the crowd needed encouragement. From the opening note, the energy was feral-mosh pits, crowd surfers, bodies crashing into each other as if drawn by some gravitational force. The final stretch, with Lochness tearing through the venue, felt like the whole building was shaking.

julie may not be reinventing the shoegaze/noise rock blueprint, but they execute it with such intensity and authenticity that it feels thrillingly new. In an age where much of modern rock feels overly polished, their commitment to raw, visceral performance is a breath of fresh air. The fact that they design every aspect of their work, from album covers to merch, only reinforces their DIY ethos. (Yes, I bought a t-shirt-something I rarely do, but this one was band-designed, and I couldnt resist.)

Glasgow gave julie everything, and they gave it right back. If this show is anything to go by, the skys the limit for them.

Review by Fraser Doig.

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