Murder By Death captivates Belly Up with AJJ
On October 30th, 2025, AJJ and Murder By Death bring a Thursday night at Belly Up to life with a folk punk, cinematic show. This is Murder By Death’s final tour, as they’ve been making music as a band for 25 years. The audience was full of long-time fans, knowing it would be their last or one of their last live experiences with the band. The rare and tangible anticipation of the audience was absolutely satisfied by the powerful and special performance they proceeded to put on.
The band AJJ opened the night, or as lead singer Sean Bonette put it, they “seasoned the stage,” preparing it for Murder By Death to cook. The band creates a layered folk sound with their numerous instruments on stage, a cello, electric standing bass, and an especially mesmerizing keyboardist. The depth of their sound matched their layered and thoughtful songwriting, often touching on cultural phenomena and the political state of the world. Their song “Normalization Blues,” released in 2020, Bonette sings, “Connection’s more important now than it ever was but I’d rather be alone.” Another more specific, direct, and yet cutting lyric from that same song, referring to Donald Trump,
“He’s a symptom and a weapon of the evil men who really run the show, The ones who melt down human beings into money, like a cruel Sorcerer’s Stone.”
AJJ seasoned the stage just right, leaving the crowd spirited and anxious for the main act.
Murder By Death’s set began with a Star Wars themed introduction, with scrolling text spanning behind the drum set, explaining the bittersweet fact of their last and final tour and welcoming everyone to the show. They had seven band members on stage, creating a levitating folk rock orchestra. Lead singer and guitarist Adam Turla is married to the bands’ cellist, Sarah Balliet. They are accompanied on stage by a violinist, a saxophone player, and one specific band member wearing many hats, two of which being a pocket trumpet and a mandolin. The set list this tour has been different every night, creating a unique moment between the audience and the band. The set list included songs from each of their ten studio albums, most notably their album released earlier this year, Egg and Dart. They enchant the crowd with ballad-like songs like, “Black Velvet Cloak,” then bring them back up with the joy and whimsy of the live performance of their song entitled, “Pizza.”
Murder By Death’s last hurrah in Solano Beach ended with the beautiful emotional buildup of layered instrumentals in the outro of their song, “Alas.” It was the perfect final goodbye from the band to the crowd of committed and adoring fans.