Over the past half year or so, I’ve seen Julia Lucille perform a handful of times. She always delivers haunting, ethereal performances that hinge on her floating vocal delivery and ghostly guitar picking. Onstage alone, she drifts into some parallel plane existing between worlds. But more recently, Lucille has assembled a full band to support her live shows. These new members have allowed the band to emerge into some entirely new force by not only accompanying Lucille, but grounding her music with powerful, swelling arrangements.
I’ve seen the full band perform once before, but last Thursday night at Cheer Up Charlies, the ensemble, which includes Paul Mitchell, Dwight Smith, Andrew Stevens, and Emily Cross, found a new level of musical accord as they performed a cohesive and entrancing set of songs. The result made Lucille’s work no less transfixing but lent a newfound strength and solidity. Lucille is set to release an album on Punctum Records in the coming year, and these new developments in the band have me excited for that impending occurrence.
Check out photos from the night below. All photographs © Bryan C. Parker & Pop Press International; all rights reserved. Click any image to open set in slideshow viewer.
