Live Report: Just Mustard hit the Electric Arena with gloriously mystifying set

Only about ten seconds into Just Mustard’s Saturday afternoon set at Electric Picnic, you already have no doubt what kind of concert you have gotten yourself into. As gritty guitar chords, quickly accompanied by light, ethereal vocals kick off, it is an absolute certainty that we are in for one of the highlights of this weekend's festival.

Just Mustard have got the recipe down to create an incredibly rousing and recognisable sound, infinitely dark and bone-rattling from start to finish, never giving you a second to breathe. Track after track, abrasive guitars blend together with drums so powerful that their rhythm shakes all the way into the ground of the Electric Arena.

Just Mustard at Electric Picnic 2025. Copyright Cat Gundry Beck.

Despite the intensity and heaviness of Just Mustard’s soundscapes, their melodic flair is still evident and undeniable, a guitar or bass riff always perfectly placed to keep the incredibly hummable quality to their tunes.

This melodic aspect is mostly held together by the absolute powerhouse that is singer Katie Ball and her cool, laid-back attitude. Layering soft, almost whispered vocals over the ear-piercing intensity of the tracks’ instrumentals, she single-handedly gives the band their signature ethereal sounds.

Just Mustard at Electric Picnic 2025. Copyright Cat Gundry Beck.

On top of those gentle notes, Ball also goes into incredibly high ranging vocals which almost sound like she is screaming her heart out, yet she does it completely effortlessly, hitting you right in the chest with the emotionality of her performance.

On lower ranging melodies, her whispered, drawn-out style vocals take centre stage, turning the show into an almost religious catharsis.

With their somber, chest-heaving heaviness, Just Mustard turn, just for 45 minutes, Electric Picnic’s Electric Arena into a completely otherworldly experience: breathless and deliciously disorienting.