It didn’t take long for Angus and Julia Stone to make Australia fall in love with them, and listening to their debut album A Book Like This, it’s easy enough to see why. The pair delivers a magnificent set of folk tunes, full of shared lead vocals, multi-instrumentation and clever song writing, that are all as attractive as the pair themselves. It’s no wonder that they’ve been able to increase their venue size in little time at all – following up their three sold out Corner shows during their last tour in Melbourne town with two very much sold out shows at the gorgeous Forum Theatre this time around.

Confusing some and amazing others, Latin harp virtuoso, Victor Valdez provided a decent timed support set that consisted of classic Latin tunes and various covers all performed on the harp. His quirky persona kept the crowd entertained as he sung his way through Gypsy Kings (a crowd request) and the crooning favourite Sway, and tried his hardest to get the crowd to sing along to the well known Guantanamera and La Bamba. Harp instrumentals were the true displays of Valdez’ talents however, with one titled The Train creating a perfectly formed story through only sound. Unfortunately, not much can be said for the crowd, their chattering battling against Valdez’ volume.

The Stone’s may have been testing the patience of the sold out theatre once Valdez left. Considering their set up was all ready to go before the support had even begun, the almost hour wait seemed a little rich. Eventually though the stage was transformed into a day’s sky – complete with clouds and a sun that lowered from the ceiling and seemed very appropriate for the theatre environment. Immediately beginning with a pair of their earliest tunes – including Paper Aeroplane – the gentle nature of their music and engaging presence made the crowd spring to attention.

The Forum seemed entranced for a little while, though not much can be said for the Melbourne fans for the overall gig. Clearly a great number of punters had no attention span whatsoever and handfuls of rather ignorant individuals seemed to think their conversations were appropriate accompaniment as Julia sung the opening verses of Wasted. There wasn’t much the duo could do to really captivate the entirety of the theatre, with even the most entrancing numbers like For You receiving less than desirable admiration.

As their backdrop made transitions from day to night, the transitions in the music followed suit, with the more upbeat numbers drawing a smile from a collective audience. All the while the Stones’ elephant stood to the back of stage, as popular numbers like Hollywood and Another Day provided the upbeat moments (though Hollywood is most certainly only upbeat in its music, not its lyrics). During the latter of these, Valdez was invited to return and play harp whilst Julia took to the trumpet and Angus to the trombone as the nighttime appropriately returned to day. More up-tempo numbers included Here We Go Again and Just A Boy, which finished up the main set with two life-size marionettes of Angus and Julia lowering to centre stage and dancing like possessed doll versions of the pair.

There was most certainly no reluctance from the crowd in applauding the Stones as they left, so much so that they spent less than a minute before returning for an encore. An uproar of protest began as Julia announced they had chosen to play Soldier instead of A Book Like This resulted in them changing their decision, before finishing up with The Beast, to which many bopped and sang along to. The finishing touches of this track left the crowd, including the talkers, in a buzz that would have happily enjoyed more – even after the near two hours of playing time.