Fans flowed from the cold night outside into the Octagon’s lobby, filling it up, before spilling down the steep theatre stairs inside, as staff patiently herded them towards their seats. It is not everyday that the university lecture theatre sees this many people eager to be there, but there was good reason, for it was the first of two sold-out Perth shows for Angus and Julia Stone.
The stage was set up with a candy-striped awning making it look like a giant puppet theatre. With everyone finally seated and running 20 minutes behind schedule, the lights dimmed as the not-so-diminutive Victor Valdes stepped into the spotlight with a harp as tall as he was. Valdes jumped right into a cover of the mambo song Sway and immediately impressed the audience with his Mexican tenor and upbeat, yet charming, harp playing. The crowd were willingly singing along to his exquisite covers of popular Latin songs, such as Guantanamera and La Bamba, even snapping up a request to play traditional Mexican song Cielito Lindo. In true Mexican-style, he finished the set with a display of flamenco dancing… ARIBA!
With the drum beats of Paper Aeroplane filling the theatre, the curtains lifted to a great fanfare, revealing silhouettes of Angus Stone in scarecrow attire and a free-flowing Julia Stone underneath cardboard clouds and sun over a bright, sky blue backdrop. This was a theatre show after all, even if a few fans had already decided to spend the rest of the night dancing on the staircases. Adding a twist to Private Lawns, Julia broke it down by rapping to the final verse of the song. Although it has been a crowd favourite since 2006, the different take was well received as the audience clapped to her well-paced rap.
After a slew of shows over the past two years in both the UK and Australia, it was a welcome change to see the Stones play in a quieter venue, away from the volume of the festival collective and bustle of drunken clubbers. The theatre venue creates just the right atmosphere for their brand of indie-folk. It was an opportunity for Angus and bassist Clay Macdonald to do their whistling duet during Horse and Cart, and for Julia to resonate the walls singing Hollywood, while her brother haunted the theatre with the slide of the lap steel guitar. That is not to say that their set was full of the quiet ones, as the crowd knows exactly how much fun the Stones siblings can have.
Having already brought out trumpets, harmonicas and clarinets, Angus then armed himself with a trombone from their arsenal of instruments. Julia invited Victor Valdez back onto the stage to accompany Another Day with some classical harp playing. An oddball in the set was the reggae-heavy Suzy which gave a rare glimpse of Angus projecting his voice further than any of his boyish songs ever did. Cheery women filled the aisles to dance along to Just A Boy as two giant Angus and Julia marionettes dangled from the ceiling to join the shuffle. Against such a backdrop, it was hard to imagine the set without the puppets. Clearly not having had enough screen time, the puppets disappeared along with the siblings and band, only to emerge onto the stage again after a brief standing ovation.
Some attentive audience members heard the starting riffs of Bella and yelled out “Hello!” -an amusing tribute to Julia doing the same thing on the album. Encore performance of A Book Like This was a testament to the story-telling nature of the whole set which was perfectly topped off when the Stone siblings released The Beast within. With Angus and Julia Stone nearing the end of the tour and so much thought into putting on a visually appealing show, let us hope that they get a well-deserved break when they get home from Perth.
