Australian siblings Angus & Julia Stone returned to New Zealand for a one off show in Hawkes Bay. Elliott Childs went along.
Angus and Julia Stone Photo: supplied
Both the main benefit and drawback of gigs at the Church Road Winery in Napier is it’s proximity to the suburb of Taradale.
On the one hand a sizeable chunk of the crowd (myself included thanks to my in-laws living right next door to the winery) can walk to and from the gig. On the other hand, suburban noise restrictions mean that whilst I was reasonably close to the stage, I was at times unable to hear Angus & Julia Stone over the noise of the crowd.
But a winery is never going to be the best place to hear a band and these gigs, like festivals, are more about the atmosphere than anything else.
The setting of Church Road is beautiful and the whole event had a family friendly feel with people picnicking on the large lawn and young children running around amongst the twenty-something hipsters and others who had run the risk of missing the Rugby World Cup semi-final.
In one display of what I believe might be the most “winery gig” behaviour I have ever seen, a bearded young man in a straw hat was dancing along to the support act Alae with a tub of hummus perched on top of his head, which his friends were eagerly dipping chips into.
To my mind the crowd seemed younger over all than the average Church Road audience. This theory was confirmed when Angus and Julia Stone took the stage and most of the spectators got to their feet and headed towards the front, causing a minor panic amongst some picnickers who had optimistically set up in the prime spots and were now surrounded.
The Stones, a brother and sister duo from Australia, have been putting out records since 2006 and over the years have progressed from folky, soft voiced acoustic songs to a polished indie-pop band.
Angus & Julia Stone Live at Church Road Winery Photo: RNZ/Elliott Childs
Their backing band is a solid, cohesive unit with guitarist Louis King stealing the spotlight occasionally with blistering solos, particularly on ‘Private Lawns’ a song from Angus & Julia’s first EP.
The song choices leant heavily in favour of Julia’s lead vocals with her doing most of the singing and the stage banter whilst Angus, dressed like Jimi Hendrix in a wide open shirt and velvet jacket, hung back, one of his various vintage guitars slung over his shoulder.
He did have his moments in the spotlight too, especially during the band’s brief but enjoyable foray into material from his side project Dope Lemon.
But the show really belonged to his sister. Julia Stone owned the stage, twisting her hands and fingers in the air on the songs where she wasn’t playing guitar and dancing with a tambourine in her hands for others.
She brought energy and enthusiasm to the performance, contrasting and complementing her somewhat more aloof brother.
At a couple of points, she picked up a trumpet and played an impressive solo one handed, whilst holding a guitar. Not the easiest thing to do.
Their set covered the span of their careers with some back-catalogue favourites alongside their more recent work. ‘Hearts Beat Slow’ and ‘Big Jet Plane’ were particular crowd pleasers.
‘Chateau’ a well-crafted pop song that has been unfairly ruined for me after being played on a loop as the hold music for a particular telecoms company, also drew cheers at the start of the band’s encore.
It was only on the softer, acoustic songs that things faltered but by no means due to the Stone siblings.
‘Wedding Song’, which Julia explained they had awkwardly played at their mother’s wedding, including the references to “making babies on the beach”, was almost lost under the chatter of a crowd who by that point had, for few hours, had easy access to a lot of wine.
The gig organisers had hedged their bets and had timed the show to finish at 9 so that people wouldn’t stay away for fear of missing the rugby. Though given the result, I’ll bet the crowd would rather have spent much longer watching Angus and Julia’s vibrant and well crafted set.
