Angus and Julia Stone

As darkness descended upon what had been a humid day in Perth a crowd was gathering in anticipation. The queued crowd sprawled out close to two blocks down Murray St for Angus and Julia Stone. A sign hanging on the wall of Club Capitol advised any ticket-less hopefuls that it was in fact a sell out. Boy wasn’t I lucky!

Whilst waiting with my fellow queue dwellers that were an eclectic bunch the thing we all had in common was that the anticipation shone on our faces and in our happy banter as we waited eagerly to embark on a musical journey that would prove to be memorable.

After surviving the throng and entering Capitol the support band ‘The Orange Bird’ was in full flight (excuse the pun) and they were delivering a fitting entrée of heart starting eclectic beats and rhythms, solid drums with a healthy dose of percussion. Later in the evening I briefly spoke to a couple of the bands quirky members who described themselves as psychedelic noise makers – need I say anymore?

The Stone sibling’s arrived on a stage that was overlooked by wall of twinkling star like lights opened the night boldly with ‘Wasted’ and from that moment they had their audience mesmerised! Julia’s ethereal beauty is the perfect housing for her heartfelt and almost childlike vocal delivery whilst Angus cuts a somewhat aloof and I might add hirsute figure who quite literally makes me go weak at the knees and out of the two is my favourite vocalist.

The evening was a showcase for their new album “A Book like This” and earlier EP “Chocolate and Cigarettes” as well as a couple of new songs I had not heard before. Standouts of the night were ‘Private Lawns’ with Julia proving to be a dab hand on Trumpet. First single and crowd pleaser ‘The Beast’ lifted the spirits of the audience. A new song that Julia wrote for a friend’s wedding ‘Black Jacket’ was a personal favourite it is a beautiful love song. ‘A Book like This’ with lovely teasing piano was breath taking in its simplicity. This was followed by ‘Devil’ written by their regular drummer who was absent on this occasion. The stand in drummer was doing a fine job and we were to find out he was in fact Angus and Julia’s Uncle Steve making the night somewhat of a family affair. Up next was a song written by Angus about a girl whom he had met at a festival ‘Just a Boy’. The night was rounded out by their song from Triple J compilation album Like a Version – ‘Tub Thumbing’, the heartfelt ‘Mango Tree’ and ‘Another Day’.

The captivated crowd chanted gleefully for more and Angus and Julia did not disappoint delivering a fitting finale of ‘All of Me’, ‘Paper Aeroplane’ with Julia on Harmonica and ‘Here we go Again’. The whole evening was spellbinding and joyous and reluctantly all that had been party to the occasion departed out into the night. A word to the wise Angus and Julia Stone are two sublimely gifted young artists who are well worth checking out before they become mega-stars!

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