Juli

Somewhere in the late 2000s, German rock broke through. Bands like Juli filled festivals, wrote good songs, and drew real crowds. They didn’t need English radio to matter. When Telekom Street Gigs put them in Erfurt in 2009, it felt like confirmation of something already shifting: German bands weren’t underdogs anymore.

I never caught them live, but the shift was noticeable if you paid attention. For years, everything that mattered seemed to happen in English. Then bands like Juli just existed, did their thing, and people showed up. It wasn’t sudden or revolutionary. It was just a moment when things changed.