GALLERY & REVIEW | Just Mustard by Chux On Tour Photography - Berlin, 2025

Hailing from Dundalk, Ireland, Just Mustard have spent the past few years carving out a reputation as one of the most uncompromising and innovative bands to emerge from the island’s music scene. Their sound sits somewhere between shoegaze, noise rock, and post-punk, but it’s the way they fuse these elements—Katie Ball’s ghostly, understated vocals drifting over grinding guitars, distorted basslines, and fractured rhythms—that sets them apart. The result is a body of work that feels simultaneously unsettling and hypnotic, beautiful and brutal.

On September 22, 2025, they brought that sound to Berlin’s Privatclub, and from the moment the lights dimmed, the atmosphere was electric. The venue’s intimacy amplified every texture in their music—the feedback, the distortion, the spaces between notes—all heightened by the fact that the mix was flawless. Each layer of noise felt deliberate, sculpted, and immersive, pulling the audience deep into the band’s shadowy universe.

This was the third gig by Just Mustard I saw in just four days, and while some might say, seeing a band so often in such a short timeframe must be boring, these gigs felt like 3 completely different shows, and Berlin reminded me of the first time I saw Just Mustard in 2019 and why I fell in love with them in the first place.

I remember like it was yesterday walking into the Prince Albert at the Great Escape Festival back in 2019. The room was small, the energy raw, and when Just Mustard launched into “Seven” with its rattling tambourine, I felt the ground shift. Later came “Frank”—still my favorite track to this day—delivered with such intensity that it branded itself into memory. Six years on, in Berlin, I felt a similar charge: the sense that you’re witnessing something that cuts through the noise of everyday life, something unforgettable.

As the set unfolded, the audience swayed between stunned silence and cathartic release. The low ceilings and red & blue glow of Privatclub gave the whole performance an almost claustrophobic intensity, as though the walls themselves were vibrating with the band’s sonic assault. Katie Ball’s vocals hovered like a phantom above the noise, fragile but commanding, reminding everyone why Just Mustard have become one of the most exciting live acts in Europe.

Six years on from that Great Escape gig, Just Mustard remain unpredictable, uncompromising, and utterly captivating. A clear recommendation from us.

GALLERY: Just Mustard in Berlin, 2025

All photos: © Chux On Tour Photography