On a Tuesday night I visited Alphabet Lounge to listen to the opening act of Julia Weldon, part of the CMJ music marathon running in the city now. I walked in as they were doing soundcheck, and, since technical problems persisted, that soundcheck lasted 15 minutes. This is to say I had plenty of time to see Weldon before ever hearing her perform “live.” She was boyish and adorable.
Photo: @TheMuseBox
Her voice was sincere and raspy. Backed by a drummer, keyboardist, bassist, guitarist, and a back-up vocalist, the sound Julia Weldon (as a band) produced was warm, mid-tempo and playful, with a bit of jazzing around on keyboards and drums. They steered clear of straight pop and never treaded into heavily distorted rock. Some songs had a countryesque tempo or twang to them, but overall folk is a suitable word to describe them that gives them enough room to draw from different styles. The lyrical content of her songs was mostly about love and loss and the euphoria or delirium that results.
photo: Facebook
The show ended anticlimactically with the sound guy cutting them off mid-song. It turned out they weren’t going to be compensated for the time it took the rookie sound-guy to troubleshoot the P.A.. The club explained that every band had only thirty minutes and that it was out of his hands. While Julia’s publicist and bandmates were outraged, and even people in the audience were pissed, Julia just expressed disappointment, later commenting that it was unnecessary to cut them off mid-song. I would have to agree with her.
Here is the new video for her song “Careful in the dark”:
