Sarah Julia, two sisters from Amsterdam, stepped into that stillness with the ease of those who know the power of understatement. From the opening notes of ‘Use A Friend’, their sound, anchored by a steady guitar and entwined harmonies, felt both fragile and assured.
Their rapport with the audience unfolded naturally. Before ‘Game of Pretend’, one sister admitted, “This song has had many, many versions, but I’m glad we found one that felt right to us”. The crowd’s applause after each song was instant, a moment of connection that would define their set. By ‘Thoughtless Man’, a quietly devastating meditation on self-awareness and forgiveness, they had Manchester’s full attention. Lines like ‘I want to scream out loud but, I think the silence does it better’ and ‘Can you make a thoughtless man be thoughtful?’ revealed their gift for simplicity laced with ache.
When they introduced ‘Daughters’ with a small speech, touching on fears that come with being a woman, “We deserve to be safe every hour of the day”. The audience fell completely still. The silence was almost tactile. Even the smallest sounds, such as a bag shifting, a pint being poured at the bar or footsteps by the door, felt amplified against their harmonies. ‘Caringorms’ was introduced with a small speech, saying how it was written with the times they spent there with their father growing up in mind. By the time ‘Amsterdam’ closed the set, the room was quietly undone. The lyric “How could I put me first, it isn’t what she deserves” moved through the crowd like a chilled breeze, leaving more than a few tearful faces. It was the perfect acoustic opening: gentle, resonant, deeply human.
Then came Samia, and with her, a sudden surge of voltage.
From the first line of ‘Triptych’, ‘Keepin’ you awake, keepin’ you awake on purpose’, she commanded the stage with both precision and abandon - there’s something slightly poetic about opening an evening gig with those words. The crowd’s reaction was instantaneous, erupting into cheers that carried through the night. Samia’s voice, elastic and emotive, shifted effortlessly between whisper and wail, threading intimacy through every lyric.
‘Dare’ introduced a steady, swaying rhythm; ‘Fair Game’ followed, greeted by instinctive nods from the crowd. Then ‘Sacred’, perhaps the emotional apex of the first half, cut through with its raw declaration: ‘You never loved me as much as you hate me now’. In moments like these, Samia proved her mastery of emotional nuance: the ability to hush a room without ever asking it to quiet down.
Between songs, her presence was disarmingly warm. She introduced her band, Noah Rauchwerk on drums, Ned Steves on bass, Boone Wallace & Darryl Rahn on guitar, and thanked Sarah Julia with genuine admiration before diving into ‘Bovine Excision’, a surreal and oddly tender highlight introduced with a laugh - “This song’s about cows”. What could have been playful absurdity instead became artful vulnerability. ‘Carousel’ followed, its raw lyricism ‘I’ve been rubbing together bramble, I want to hitch my fire to your candle’ silencing the crowd once again before a euphoric beat drop reignited them. The band's ability to translate the sound of the album to rooms across the ocean from its origin is nothing short of genius; every note feels as full and purposeful as it is produced.
The setlist wove through eras and emotions, with her recent album ‘Bloodless’ being the vocal point of the show. ‘Hole In A Frame’ brought bursts of movement, with fans pointing and shouting along to the line ‘you know what they say about the baby and the corner’. ‘Kill Her Freak Out’ featured an iconic fake keys performance from Noah Rauchwerk, after a brief talk about how she was unable to bring the keyboard across the ocean. ‘Spine Oil’ and ‘Lizard’ showcased the band’s precision, ‘Big Wheel’ & ‘Fit N Full’ highlighted the longtime fans in the crowd and ‘North Poles’ stood as the night's crown jewel, equal parts brilliance and catharsis. Samia teased with quotation marks “We have one more song. You shan’t see me again.” before wrapping up with ‘Pants’, a song consisting of a perfect balance of sonic drama in parts, raw lyricism throughout and flawless use of repetition. Throughout the night Samia’s vocals remained unmatched & hauntingly beautiful, leaving the crowd breathless and filled with goosebumps.
They left the stage to a full round of applause, fans eager to hear more. When Samia & her band returned for the encore, consisting of ‘Pool’, ‘Is There Something in the Movies’, and ‘Honey’, it felt less like a conclusion and more like a collective exhale. Enraptured, the audience sang “It’s all honey” back to her, their voices carrying both devotion and joy in equal measure.
By the end, the energy softened again to where it began: not silence, but stillness. A night that began with quiet introspection from Sarah Julia and built to Samia’s emotional crescendo closed in perfect symmetry. At YES Pink Room, their performances shaped a concert that didn’t clamour for attention - it earned it quietly and kept it long after the lights dimmed, the stage emptied, and the final wave faded.
Anna Louise Jones
Images: Kaitlin Brockley @kaitlynb.jpeg
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