On the last stop of her abridged West coast tour, Jilian Medford, better known by the moniker Ian Sweet, and her friends Gal Pal made it a homecoming to remember.
A dynamic post-punk quartet fronted by singer and filmmaker Emelia Austin, Gal Pal is constantly pushing their own limits as they delve further into the art-rock realm. In the past several years since they debuted their EP Girlish, the band has experimented with various sounds and styles that fluidly merge each member’s strengths and versatility, transforming into a mesmerizingly unrecognizable and tighter ensemble in the process. Austin and bandmates Nico Romero and Shay Hahn rotated between instruments and traded off lead vocals throughout their set, with guitarist Romero embracing trans joy and Hahn belting and screaming into the mic to stilted, prog-punk melodies. Gal Pal is as warm, thought-provoking, and harmonious as ever, and they’re just getting started.
Clad in a neon spray-painted bodysuit with her beloved pup Blueberry airbrushed across her chest, Medford danced and rocked the night away with a jubilant crowd. From soul-baring ballads like “Get Better” of off 2021’s Show Me How You Disappear to pure dance pop bangers like her joyously defiant new single “f*ckthat,” she left no emotional stone unturned, doing so with an electric tenderness that draws listeners to her in the first place. She brought everyone further into her intimate world with a new, unreleased and unnamed track detailing the dissolution of a relationship that both blossomed and withered over the course of the pandemic, before bounding into fan favorite “Sword” for a more upbeat break. The night wouldn’t have been complete without her closing cover of “Yellow” by Coldplay (one of her all-time favorite bands and stadium pop aspirations), which got the entire room singing along under the glow of lighters and swaying phone flashlights in the air.
Ian Sweet is making stops in Europe and the UK this summer, and will be continuing her US tour later in the year.
