Fantastic performance from Aussie duo
The Glee Club is quite possibly my favourite of all the venues I have visited, for several reasons. One is that its intimacy often brings out the best in the artists, putting them at ease enough to engage in witty banter and to build up a repartee with the audience. The venue is especially well suited to the quiet folk of bands like Angus & Julia Stone, and indeed, Julia herself remarks that the duo love playing at Glee Club shows.
The brother and sister make an oddly contrasting visual onstage with the very petite Julia dressed beautifully in a sweeping green and white polkadot dress which falls to the floor, and is complemented by an equally 1950s wide headband. Angus, meanwhile has 'bedhead' hair and appears endearingly dishevelled in a flannel shirt.
Opener 'Chocolate & Cigarettes' is perfectly understated, with multi-instrumentalist Julia on keyboard, accompanied softly by Angus on acoustic guitar. Julia's soaring voice fills the venue, and comes across as somewhere near a hybrid of Joanna Newsom and Fiona Apple.
'Paper Aeroplane' is a more upbeat offering, as seems to be the case with the songs featuring the vocal talents of Angus. The siblings' differing voices seem to complement each other with ease, and neither sibling overshadows the other. Julia definitely comes across as the more fiery half of the duo, particularly on the as yet unreleased song about Hollywood creating unrealistic expectations, which features lines like "they should have died in 'The Sound of Music'" and "In 'The Little Mermaid' he probably would have married some whore, after all he was royalty".
Despite only playing 8 songs and not being the headliners of the 'Longing for Latitude' event, Angus & Julia Stone exhibited all of the enthusiasm, intensity and grace you would expect from the main attraction. The audience was hushed and respectful throughout and with such emotionally wrought songs as 'All of Me' being presented for their delectation, who wouldn't be absorbed? I left feeling my highest expectations had been met and hoping that the band decide to visit my humbled city again very soon indeed.