Nervously introducing himself as Vance Joy, the lone support act cried out over the slowly filling room of seated onlookers. His voice breaking in folky tenderness, Joy thanked Julia Stone before strumming gently into the bittersweet “From Afar”.
As his voice reached for the extremities of the church, Joy delved into a mesmeric acoustic rendition of Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” before swapping to a ukulele for his final song, “Riptide”.
With a quick smile and a few simple words of thanks, Joy left the stage followed by enthusiastic applause.
With her heart torn wide-open, Julia Stone pranced into view and immediately fell deeply into the quiet rhythm of her music. he stage, on fire with red light, gently held Stone as her voice filled the venue with her thunderous talent.
With a sighing euphoria, Stone’s vocals were met with the incredibly tight talent of singer and musician Roscoe James Irwin from The Cat Empire/The Bamboos, and both Ben Edgar and Ed Fairly from Gotye.
Heavy with horns and percussion, the incredible instrumentals complemented the overwhelming strength of Stone’s voice, and crafted an encompassing ethereality around the evocative lyrics.
Happily joking and sharing anecdotes with the silent crowd, Stone smiled through the Angus and Julia Stone song “Wasted”, sans the former vocalist. With a warm radiance, her vocals fell gracefully through the ecclesiastical setting.
The statement that “now all the positive songs are out of the way, here’s an old song that I wrote years ago,” introduced the aching tonality of “Horse With The Wings”. This heartbreakingly raw song, half sung-half spoken, fraught with a dissolving pain, showed the bleeding emotion within Stone’s lyrics.
Followed by a cover of “The Grease Megamix”, Stone laughed sweetly through the lyrics, a heavy contrast to the surrounding numbers.
As a prelude to the next tune, Stone explained “this is the lowest point of the set for me.”
Collapsing into the background story of “By The Horns”, Stone expressed her disdain for the shadowed antagonist of the song. Its strength live was unparalleled, showing Stone spitting viciousness towards the dark figure of its narrative with a screaming confidence.
Adding sentimentality to the transcendental set, Stone asked Irwin to sing one of his own tunes to the audience in celebration of his birthday. With vocals likeable to Elliott Smith – if Elliott Smith had sung covers of Sufjan Stevens’ songs – Irwin’s “Johnny and June” was a sweetly sung anesthetic that floated through the enrapt congregation with a soothing reverence.
Cradling the poetic lyrics with the softness of her voice, Stone led the audience into heavy reverie throughout the final song in the set. With the music swelling to a crying height and crashing heavily around Stone’s tiny figure, “Somehow” was one of many standout performances of the night.
The vitality of Stone’s presence, matched with the overflowing enormity of her voice in a live setting, crushed any comparisons to even her own recordings.
Receiving a standing ovation after an encore of “The Wedding Song” and a cover of The Temptations’ “My Girl”, the interlocked quartet bowed and left the stage waving.
