Live: Just Mustard's Wall of Sound Rocks NYC // 09.09.26

A rainy night in Brooklyn saw Dundalk expert experimentalists Just Mustard shake the foundations of Williamsburg’s National Sawdust this week, just over a month before their hotly anticipated third record ‘WE WERE JUST HERE’ explodes and distorts its way into the world. Despite being 10 years into their journey, the five-piece band fronted by Katie Ball showed that their best work is right on the horizon.

Photo by Max Falvey

A healthy amount of tote bags and doc martens fill the room to begin the night. Friends are met and made, conversations about the band and recommendations of similar, brilliant Irish noise electrify the room. Something is happening here tonight, and all those in-the-know are eager to be a part of it. 

The packed out audience wasn’t only treated to one brilliant set of experimental guitar music however, as Queens-based solo artist Miss Grit played a beautifully haunting set to open the show. With a mix of unreleased tunes and a couple from her 2022 album ‘Follow The Cyborg’, her unorthodox riffs and fuzzy, brain vibrating tones had the crowd begging for more. 

The songs she performed with her Fender Jaguar and heavy backing beats were tough and abrasive, a sharp contrast to her very sweet and shy anecdotes between songs. A large boo from the audience after the announcement of ‘one song left’ gave her the highest honour an excellent opening act deserves. However, the anticipation for what was to follow couldn’t be higher.

Photo by Max Falvey

Just Mustard absorb the stage in silence. A forceful wave of cheers from an audience that hails 3,000 miles from Dundalk fail to affect the band’s stoic and focused faces. With no introduction, we’re straight into ‘Seven’. The first of only two offerings from their last record, 2022’s brutally powerful ‘Heart Under’, really helped to emphasise the evolution of the band’s sound, as a definite shift from moody, brooding sounds has led to this new era being brighter, fuzzier, and more lyrically positive. ‘POLLYANNA’ was next, raucously opened by bassist Rob Clarke, and instantly the room was alive and dangerous.

Guitarists David Noonan and Mete Kalyoncuoğlu have always been a spectacle to watch live. One with the fastest guitar picking in the west and the other always fiddling with pedal faders to make your bones shake with telecaster distortion. The new stuff from ‘WE WERE JUST HERE’, six of which we were treated to, emphasise this more than ever. ‘Silver’ sees Noonan firing between chord changes like no Mustard song has ever seen, and ‘Somewhere’ has Mete exuding Kevin Shields levels of noise. Katie Ball, of course, looms over these new tunes with a familiar grace.

After a few deeper cuts from their fabulously dark debut record ‘Wednesday’ and a brief announcement from Katie that merch will be available after the show, it was three songs left to see if National Sawdust’s decades old foundation could withstand the amplified earthquake coming its way.

Photo by Max Falvey

The title track and my personal favourite of all the singles released so far, ‘WE WERE JUST HERE’, marked the beginning of the end. This song is so sonically complicated, so full of fury and layered with effects, that it's an extravaganza to see the band effectively build the song on stage. And once it’s all up and running, it didn’t seem like an easy beast to tame. Effects and notes can sway and surge uncontrollably, drummer Shane Maguire strains to keep the whole thing afloat, but my god it sounds fantastic and a wonder to see performed live. 

The noisiest of them all, ‘Seed’, the band’s classic closer for the last 3 years, has finally been bumped to penultimate status. Mete still spends 90% of the song on his hands and knees wrestling with his pedal board to keep the whole thing moving, but it’s the new ending, ‘Endless Deathless’ that warrants attention. Good christ, never before have I heard something so furious sound so magical. This song is a true force of nature, one that has each member of the band firing on every element of their ability. After a 4 minute explosion of guitars, drums and haunting vocals, it was with a brief thank you that the band retreated into the darkness.

A seemingly never ending queue of New Yorkers then swirled around the venue to get their purple ‘WE WERE JUST HERE’ tees as compliments for the band were passed between semi-muted and tinnitus-threatened ears. I imagine I wasn’t the only one strolling around Greenwich Village the next day proudly repping the Mustard, and the rest of the world better be ready to take notice.