I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: May 7, 2026] Raue 

I had never heard of Raue and assumed they were a young band from Scotland that Biffy Clyro were bringing along with them.  Well, it turns out that Raue (pronounced Roo-aye [German for Rough] is a duo from California.

When they two came out on stage, literally everyone in the room had the same thought: “how old are these two?”  I mean, they couldn’t be more than 16, right?  (Paige Kalenian (guitar vocals is 21, Jax Huckle drums, is 20).  And the thing was that while we were wondering how old they were, they were blowing everybody away.

They are a duo and Paige plays some serious guitar.  The songs are simple, but it never sounds like one guitar.  Somehow she make a full sound even when fingerpicking.  But that’s nothing compared to the wild drumming that Jax does.  I was right in front of him and holy cow he blew me away.  He has incredible speed, he throws in terrific fills and he;s really creative–it’s possible they sound so huge because of all the drums that Jax is playing.

Paige is just full of energy–she jumps all around the stage when she’s not singing.  They set the two of them pretty far apart, and Paige was all over the stage, bouncing from the drums back to the mic.  And their look was amusing too–Paige with dyed purple hair and sleeveless concert T while Jax was wearing an open Oxford shirt over a white Tshirt.

I liked Paige’s voice, but the only negative about the show is that she sang similarly on all of the songs–it’s a good sound for the grungy music they play, but I think it would be better if she had more range.  Having said that, it was kind of hard to hear her in the mix, so maybe she has more diversity than I realized.

For  the first song, Paige played a large hollow bodied electric guitar that looked enormous on her–but her pedals and everything sounded great.  For the rest of the set she played a smaller guitar, which allowed her to jump around a bit more.

For Maize, Jax had a cool sound on his snare–almost a ringing sound–and Paige’s distortion was perfect.  Poor Kid is a slower song–it’s funny to think of teenagers writing a song called Poor Kid, but whatever.

Paige switched to a third guitar before announcing that they had enough time to play a cover.  She said that they play a cover because they know that most of us don’t know them, but a cover gives everyone a chance to sing along.  So they played Radiohead’s Creep.  The song sounded pretty good, although I preferred their originals.  Particularly the cool opening guitar riff of Come Around and the way Karma just ripped out of the blocks with heavy guitars and drums.

Ruby Glow and Weak Blood ended the set loud and heavy and as Weak Blood ended, Paige climbed on the drum kit and leapt off, the way only a young person can. I tried to get a picture but it was all blurry.

They were so sweet at the end with Paige thanking everyone for listening to them and for giving two kids a chance to pursue their dream of making music.

I hope they gain a wider audience and I can’t imagine how good they’ll be in a couple more years.

Escape ∑
Are You Bored Yet? ∑
Maize ∞
Poor Kid ∑
Creep (Radiohead cover)
Come Around €
Karma ≤
Ruby Glow ≤
Weak Blood ∞

∑ too scared to explain EP (2025)
∞ Or Forever Hold Your Peace EP (2024)
≤ KARMA!! single (2023)
€ Erase & Rewind EP (2022)
Raue (2021)

P and drummer