It was about two years ago when I first encountered Julia Jacklin, on an unseasonably frigid day in July at the Newport Folk Festival. She played a haunting set, her soft vocals competing with aggressive wind gusts that could knock you off your feet. A few months later, she played at Brooklyn’s Rough Trade to a sizeable, but likely not sold-out crowd, where it seemed even more people were just beginning to discover her incredible debut Don’t Let the Kids Win. An exercise in hit-the-nail-on-the-head millennial ennui, but conveyed through Jacklin’s wise-beyond-her-years perspective, Don’t Let the Kids Win was an impressive first record full of emotional whoppers.
Now, nearly two years later, Jacklin returned to New York City to play to a definitely sold-out crowd at Bowery Ballroom on April 24th with a new album, Crushing, under her belt. A continuation of her thoughtful, captivating journey, coming of age amidst society’s impossible expectations of her – of all women – Crushing shows growth and maturity not just as a person now two years older, but as an artist who now knows just who she is. Jacklin’s performance at Bowery didn’t even feel like it came from the same person I saw at Newport or Rough Trade back in 2017. She took the stage with a newfound confidence that never waned throughout a setlist that spanned both records and put her detailed songwriting front and center. Perhaps the most telling sign of change since the first record, though, was the voices of audience members singing along loudly to every word of every song.
Beginning her set with the stark Crushing album opener “Body,” we were immediately hypnotized. Later we heard her rock out to “Pressure to Party,” “Head Alone,” and “Leadlight,” but ultimately, Jacklin didn’t shy away from playing her heavier, slower songs which all pack a punch hard enough to make you cry into your beer. Standouts were “Motherland” and “Don’t Let the Kids Win,” off the first album, and “Don’t Know How to Keep Loving You” and the encore, “Comfort,” off the new one. Jacklin stood under a spotlight, her band in the dark just behind her. And though they sounded perfectly in tune with her, that crystalline, angelic voice was all anyone could hear.
