Live Review: Julia Stone, Wolves At The Door

Long dresses, pretty flowers and '70s-style communal love was all around for Julia Stone's first show in Perth since branching out on her own solo career last year.  Perth folk-pop duo Wolves At The Door set the mood with their harmonic and sensual sounds, as the crowd milled around the creaky floors of Astor sipping wine, stretching out on the floor and engaging in ever-present conversations about who they considered the most talented out of Angus and Julia.

The crowd sprang to life with a roaring ovation for their muse Julia Stone as she appeared on stage with trumpet in hand to begin with the very sultry The Shit That They're Feeding You from the precursor EP release to her second album By The Horns in March this year. Next, Stone acknowledged the crowd in her signature bashful manner before jumping on the electric guitar to bring on an early rocking vibe to the evening with It's All Okay, also from her latest album. With a great mood building, Stone commented that The Astor was a favourite venue of hers and brother Angus. She recalled the last concert they had played together there in Perth as part of the Down The Way Tour in 2010 before playing And The Boys, which went down an absolute treat with this very sentimental crowd. They were as much there with the expectation of her banging out some old favourites as they were to hear songs from her recent solo career.

The mood darkened as the night unfolded to show a fragile and self-deprecating side of Stone's persona.  She spoke freely with the crowd about her shambolic love life, relating stories of cheating boyfriends and unrealised love. The storytelling and song explanation led us through her range of emotional responses and exposed us to her humour and humility with My Baby from The Memory Machine and her ode to a cheating boyfriend and the title track from her latest album By The Horns.

The mood lifted for the finale with Stone once again donning the electric guitar for the final song before the encore Here For The Night. With a large and persistent standing ovation, the crowd drew out for a two-song encore consisting of Fleetwood Mac's Dreams and the title track from Stone's first solo record The Memory Machine, topping off a sensational performance.