Maruja
Gallery by Erlisa Muharremi
British band Maruja is one that ascends genre – whatever box people try to fit them in, whether it be hardcore punk, or jazz, or alt-rock, or hip hop, this group of four musicians understand that the key to any good song is emotion. The bottom line is always emotion, feeling the music you write, using your artform as catharsis. And this band forces you to feel every emotion trapped in your body.
On September 27th, 2025, Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre was turned into something between a grand baroque church and a rage room. Where there was so much happening at once, your soul felt like it was being pried out of your body by sharp claws. Not only does this band know how to control a crowd, how saxophonist Joe Carroll and frontman Harry Wilkinson command the moshpit like wizards with telekinesis, but also have an iron grip on the heartstrings of everyone in attendance. They move between aggressive instrumentals with hard-hitting lyrics to beautiful ballads seamlessly, like waves. Songs like Look Down On Us start heavy and energetic, with conventions of punk and hip hop, full of dissonance and distortion, and throughout the songs’ 9-minutes, slow down into a mesmerizing jazz interlude, and crescendo back into an intense power-ballad. It is incredible to see a crowd moshing and crowdsurfing, and within the same song, that same crowd goes still, silent, and holds their heads in their hands, crying until they’ve run out of tears. Maruja’s music is like the pump and the listener is the well; if you keep swelling in and out of different emotions – anger, despair, passion – eventually you will feel spent, and burst. The well will inevitably overflow. It is the most raw and honest tour of the year.
In a world where civilian voices feel like whispers underneath the roars of powers above them, Maruja feels like hope. They call attention to urgent political matters and instill power in you, telling you that silence is compliance and the only way through tough times is forward. During the show, they gently asked the crowd to raise their fists in solidarity with the people of Palestine, Yemen, Sudan, Ukraine, and other nations who are wartorn. There was not a single person in the room who did not participate. Maruja spreads a message of love, of peace, of unity, and they illuminate the fact that these things lie all around us.
While their recordings are immersive and powerful on their own, after catching this band live twice and sobbing through both shows, I can attest that there is nothing, nothing quite like watching this band live. They are currently midway through the North American leg of their Pain to Power tour, and will continue their march through other continents as well, celebrating the release of their debut album. They are 2025’s ones to watch.
Date: September 27, 2025
