The Pressure World Tour made its West Coast debut in Phoenix, Arizona on Monday, June 2nd, 2025 with a sold out show at The Rebel Lounge. The venue is well known for hosting budding alternative rock artists who grow to become massive names (Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, and Tool, to name a few). A venue with such rich history in giving artists a launching board for success was the perfect venue for Julia Wolf as she looks ahead to what is sure to be a successful remainder of her world tour.
I discovered Julia Wolf's music on TikTok recently with her song "In My Room" that was all over my feed. This undoubtedly helped catapult her popularity, especially with her references to the Twilight series in her posts. One of her pinned posts from January garnered 1.1 million likes and 5.6 million views, featuring "In My Room" alongside a slideshow of pictures of Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, calling attention to her "lethal face card". From there, it seemed that many fans started drawing comparisons between Julia's moody, edgy lyrics and Bella Swan's unconditional, irrevocable yearning for Edward Cullen.
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Julia's music is genuinely addicting, enticing, and leans into indie-pop, metal, and shoegaze sounds with hints of electronica intermingled throughout. The overall sound of her music is unique and feels both brand new and familiar. And, despite her popularity on TikTok, her Spotify metrics agree: the people love Julia Wolf. With ranges of 180,000 to over 24 million Spotify plays on her songs, it's undeniable – people can't get enough and are listening on repeat (myself included).
Julia's newest music video for "Kill You Off" – which debuted on the first day of her world tour, May 29th, 2025, following the release of her new album Pressure on May 23rd – keeps the Twilight theme going with the video being filmed on location in Forks, Washington. There's an old camcorder feel to the video quality that evokes nostalgic feelings and calls to the eclectic mix of genres in her music. Julia poses as Bella in the video, wearing similar outfits and singing in front of a vintage orange pick-up truck just like Bella's. It's clear that Julia is a Twilight fan, and I suspect many of her fans are as well (yeah, you caught me, I'm guilty too!)
To start the show, Ellis, of Hamilton, Ontario set the mood with her dreamy, atmospheric vocals, swirling acoustics, and catchy rhythms. Chicago-based Worry Club followed with their quirky indie-rock which had the audience bobbing their heads and, at times, laughing (cue the random audience member who screamed "BEEF JERKY!" during a beat of silence between songs – to which front-man Chase Walsh retorted "this guy just found out what beef jerky is" – earning a bout of laughter from the crowd). I loved discovering these artists for the first time and plan on diving into their music again.
The excitement in the room rose as the crowd chanted "Julia Wolf!" in anticipation of her set. It became clear that she's amassed a dedicated fanbase when the crowd burst into cheers as she took the stage. She jumped into "Loser" from Pressure, and I was immediately enchanted by the juxtaposition of her swooning, velvety vocals with the heavy guitar and drums. Fun fact: Julia is a classically trained vocalist, and it shows. She sounds just as great live as she does in her recordings. Her song-writing structure is so interesting and her down-to-earth lyrics paint vivid images that take me back to my emo high school days (in a good way, I promise) – I felt a fondness for Julia and her music as I caught myself musing about the days I spent sprawled out on my bed listening to Evanescence with my compact CD player and big fuzzy headphones.
Between songs, there was a moment where Julia marveled at how packed the room was, saying how the last time she played at The Rebel Lounge, the room was barely half-full. The crowd cheered encouragingly and she broke into a huge grin before she went into her next song. She has a beautiful way of engaging with her crowd with her expressive movements and magnetic charm. The venue was intimate and fans crowded around the stage as close as they could get, soaking up the opportunity for up-close photos and videos.
The set list mostly featured songs from Pressure, with a few of her previous singles sprinkled in between. She closed out the night with more from Pressure including "Jennifer's Body", "You've Lost a Lot of Blood", and "In My Room." Most of the audience sang along with her, and everyone definitely enjoyed experiencing the new album. Pressure is my favorite album Julia's come out with thus far and it sounded even more fantastic live.
