There are bands you see, and there are bands you feel. July Talk landed at London Music Hall on March 23 for the Touch X Tour — a full celebration of the 10th anniversary of their landmark Touch album — and from the first note to the last, the room belonged entirely to them.
Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay Goldstein opened with Picturing Love, and the nearly sold-out crowd ignited on contact. That energy did not dip once across the entire night. What followed was a front-to-back performance of Touch in sequence — Beck + Call, Now I Know, Johnny + Mary, Strange Habit, Push + Pull, Lola + Joseph, So Sorry, Jesus Said So — building methodically toward the title track like a lit fuse. The anniversary re-release of the album, which includes a new collection of previously unreleased material from the Touch era, was available at the merch table. It sold well.
Goldstein performed the entire set very pregnant — and for those keeping track, she was equally pregnant three years ago the last time July Talk played this venue. Déjà vu does not begin to cover it. She showed no fatigue, no hesitation. At one point she balanced a red Solo cup on her belly while moving across the stage, which brought the house down in the best possible way. Her command of that room while visibly weeks from delivering is the kind of thing you file away and tell people about later.
The second half opened with Love's Not Dead, the title track from the new release, and it hit differently in that context. The song carries the band's recurring "Love Lives Here" ethos — a straightforward message of inclusiveness that their audience receives less like a slogan and more like a standing agreement. There is a genuine sense of community at a July Talk show that is difficult to manufacture and impossible to fake. Headsick, I Am Water and Certain Father followed in tight succession, and by the time Life of the Party and Paper Girl arrived, the room was somewhere between a concert and a congregation. Guns + Ammunition closed the main set on a raw, kinetic note.
Her command of that room while visibly weeks from delivering is the kind of thing you file away and tell people about later.
The encore was surgical. Summer Dress into The Garden — two songs from the debut record, placed deliberately at the end of a night spent honouring Touch. It was a reminder that this band has been building something from the beginning, and that the foundation still holds. July Talk remains one of the most criminally overlooked acts in Canadian music. If you have not seen them live, correct that.
Julianna Riolino Opens Strong
Julianna Riolino delivered an eight-song opening set that moved comfortably between country, bluegrass, pop and soul without feeling scattered. Her sophomore album Echo in the Dust, out since last October, gave the set a focused core. She is worth your attention before the rest of the country figures it out.
July Talk
Julianna Riolino
