Los Angeles, California - October 22, 2026
It’s been a few years since Australian singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin has performed, and even longer since she’s released music. Now, she finds herself on The Wiltern stage in Los Angeles to perform her newest album, The Gem, embracing the experience like the mantra of its opening track — as brand new.
Over the course of her last three records, Jacklin’s ability to befriend her emotions and introduce them with an air of familiarity has made for deeply poignant storytelling. Her fourth album, The Gem, carries the same sentiment, but arrives with sparkling tactility in its exploratory instrumentals and desire to release everything she thought she knew.
It’s why kicking the night off with “I Wish” is a defining moment for Jacklin’s set. She’ll step behind a mic alongside two of her bandmates and deliver angelic croons for a track that stands on the other side of what she’s faced: “A foreign landscape / With no trees, not a drop of rain / Would not believe things could grow from pain.”
The rest of the set feels like an unraveling as Jacklin recounts the emotions she’s traversed to get to this point. In an attempt to rinse away the old, she slings an electric guitar across her chest for “Brand New” while the rest of the band joins her on stage. Ushering in the track’s refrain with equal parts eagerness and equal parts hesitation, she lifts her gaze to the ceiling every now and then. “I’m free now, let me be brand-new,” she chants, but the subtle request for permission poses a glaring question in her voice: Whose answer is she hoping to hear? “Angel Vision” is similarly stripped down to the opening number, leaving it to crisp acoustic chords and a golden spotlight pouring over the singer as she quietly mulls over a startling reality: “How to feel free / With someone watching over me?”
Jacklin doesn’t wait too long before returning to the deeper cuts in her discography. The crowd’s elated response to the lush opening chords of “Shivers” and “Pool Party’s” haunting pleas felt all the more tender considering her performing hiatus.
“I'm new to this — playing shows again. It’s been a few years. I’m just trying to figure out what my vibe is,” she shares with the crowd. “I’m trying to take it at my own pace, see what feels right. I thought that maybe I’d just sit down for a couple of songs. How exciting for you guys,” she laughs.
But it’s like no time has passed since the last time she’s performed when a fan from the other side of the room gleefully shouts, “You’re doing great!” in response, or when she modulates with ease in the fluctuating verses of “Lydia Wears A Cross.” She knows how to slow down time with tracks like “Good Guy” and “Don’t Know How To Keep Loving You,” both off her 2019 album, Crushing. Sharing similar dragging tempos, “Tell me I’m the love of your life just for the night / Even if you don’t feel it” in “Good Guy” drones with weighted yearning while the latter gradually swells from doubt to devastating defeat.
“To Perth, before the border closes,” a song the singer wrote during Covid, recalls the feeling of picking up roots to plant them elsewhere, and the fear and anxiety that becomes all-consuming when leaving that familiarity behind. There is an airiness in her delivery of the lines, “Everything changes / Everything is changing,” as she realizes both the grounding and destabilizing nature of a seemingly simple reminder.
“This has been so nice. I’ve been having a good time, which is so important to me,” she pauses to express her gratitude. She jumps into “I Was Neon” and “Pressure to Party,” which highlights her ability to venture into indie-rock confessionals. Self-examining lines like “Cut wide open / Did I let in too much?” and “I know I’ve locked myself in my room / But I’ll open up the door and try to love again soon” ride atop snappy riffs, inspiring the crowd to dance along. “Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon)” concludes Jacklin’s emotional unfolding with a hoppy, mature version of its predecessor, “Pressure to Party,” which allows the party to last a little longer.
At the end of the day, Jacklin teaches a masterclass in penning delicate fervor with her encore, “Hay Plain.” She intentionally leaves the crowd with a final farewell that tinges hope with a little bit of sorrow. It’s a decision that is brilliant and gutting — an emotional shift only her music can achieve with complete finesse.
Jacklin will be on the North America leg of her tour until the end of November. You can find tickets here.
