Live Review: Paul Kelly, Angus & Julia Stone, Alex Lahey, Mojo Juju

It’s the 21^st of December and it’s Gravy Day in Brisbane, it’s getting close to 40 degrees and there is a smell of a storm on the horizon, or at least the hopes of one. Paul Kelly is in town with his mini-festival Making Gravy and while in both Melbourne and Sydney there was flooding, it seems the humid heat of Brisbane is going to see a potentially dry date with PK.

With gates opening at 4pm, it’s no surprise that crowds are relatively small for opener Mojo Juju. With more of a Day on the Green vibe to the fest than a Splendour in the Grass, the majority of audience pull up with a rug and a poncho set up on the hill next to a huge Paul Kelly branded tomato sauce bottle. Mojo Juju and band go off, playing heaps of tracks from recent album Native Tongue and genuinely slaying.

As Christmas tunes ring out across the hill and Alex Lahey sets up, the character of this mini-festival starts to take shape. Clouds gather, temperatures begin to drop – well at least as much as they can in Queensland in December. Why there may even be a few drops of that rain we’ve been hoping for. Opening with mega-single I Love You Like A Brother, Lahey is out to prove herself.

AL has been slowly evolving her live show over the few years since she broke with EP B-Grade University and her comfort on stage and crowd interaction has come a long way. With tracks such as Perth Traumatic Stress Disorder, Let’s Go Out and Every Day’s The Weekend slaying the medium-sized crowd Lahey draws in.

While we had the inklings of a major crowd for Lahey, main supports Angus & Julia Stone well and truly pull the punters in. With lightning flashes on the horizon and the temperature finally cooled down as light spits of rain come down, Snow becomes exactly what we needed in our lives as the very Byron Bay duo slink on stage. While the Stone siblings may be well known for their calming slice of pop, their set takes some major turns into fuzzy driven rock – not that we’re complaining. 

Saving their mega hits for the crescendo of the set, closing with the triple hit of Big Jet Plane, Dope Lemon anthem Uptown Folk and latest hit Chateau. These expectedly go off, but tracks such as Private Lawns which pull in Julia Stone to bust out a trumpet solo as their backing band groove away in a psych haze are what really make the set a corker. The crowd seem much less receptive to the jams of earlier rock-tinged tracks, but funky new cuts such as Cellar Door keep the crowd in the palm of the Stones respective hands. An absolutely perfect moment as the mass-singalong of Big Jet Plane speaks to the heavens to send some beautiful lightning across the sky as crowd members embrace as one big family.

With the sold-out crowd bunched together to stop the luscious lawns of the Riverstage from getting any of the light spits of rain, it’s time for the big man himself. As the spoken-word of poem And Death Shall Have No Dominion is overheard, screams erupt. Paul Kelly brought the weather with him without a doubt as torrential downpour welcomes PK and his band to the stage.

Opening with And Death Shall Have No Dominion, it’s not until the third track that we get our first PK classic with Before Too Long. Dipping heavily into tracks from latest albums Nature and Life Is Fine throughout the set, although unsurprisingly. These tracks obviously don’t have the same pull as his well-aged back catalogue but tracks such as Firewood And Candle and The One I Love well-and-truly fit in with the PK classics. 

Bringing out Kate-Miller Heidke for a few numbers, the thought of what other potentially Queensland guests could be on the horizon immediately bubbles to mind. Could the one and only Bernard Fanning come out for a stunning rendition of To Her Door? We are left wondering what could have been when the night comes to an end though. But not before hearing an absolute onslaught of gold from Australia’s greatest singer-songwriter. With lightning still about but with the rain cleared by the time PK belts out an unaccompanied rendition of Life is Fine the words have never rung truer. 

Throughout the two-and-a-half-hour strong set, PK gives small stories between songs, albeit none of them are anywhere as long as we would hope – we could listen to him talk for an entire day and not get bored. We all came with our voices well-oiled to belt out How To Make Gravy though, as it is Gravy Day. Right before the set seems to come to a close we are finally treated to the biggest singalong of the year – and biggest synchronised tears running down the right cheek. 

But a surprise follow-up as Alex Lahey, Angus & Julia Stone and Mojo Juju roll onto the stage for a big family singalong of Christmas classic Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – it is the giving season after all. Sadly, the stage is cleared and our wild night with PK seemed cut so very short. Luckily for us and our half-coarse yells (those choruses on How To Make Gravy can make your voice pretty sore), we are given not one but two encores. From Little Things Big Things Grow gets the runner-up award for most crowd participation. 

Set closer Darling It Hurts brings us back to a normal emotional state and an emotional high as the fuzzy groove of that opening guitar gets wet shimmy’s breaking out in the passionate crowd. Paul Kelly is showing no sign of slowing down in terms of songwriting or performing – long live the king.