The duo enter the stage and kick things off with ‘Baudelaire’. Julia switches from vocals and is just as comfortable on the trumpet, which she has been playing since she was 5. The crowd are instantly under the spell of Angus & Julia Stone as their voices and gentle instrumentals drift through the Ritz. New tracks ‘Make It Out Alive’ and ‘Cellar Door’ follow leaving the audience captivated.
Julia is rocking a red mini skirt matching her red guitar, she is centre stage with her leg up on the speaker and is loving the attention. Their more up tempo track ‘Heart Beats Slow’ exhibits Julia’s raspy, yet soft and sexy sound, it’s complemented perfectly by her brother’s gentle and dulcet tones.
Angus “Hello Manchester, it’s awesome to be here thanks for having us, I’m Angus this is my sister Julia”
At the request of tonight’s artist they get everyone to put the torches on their phones and wave them in the air, Ritz is suddenly glowing with stars for ‘Chateau’ a clear favourite from their new album. “We are now going to play you a love song, it’s about when you like someone a lot and you want to be everywhere they are”
‘Wherever You Are’ Julia gets lost in the song and is staring deep into the crowd as she sings. Angus introduces the next song “This is a new song, Bloodhound”.
They play an amazing extended version of ‘Private Lawns’ from the 2010 ‘Memories Of An Old’ compilation album. An impressive banjo solo has the Ritz stomping and full of cheers – not a body in the room was still. Julia has one hand holding her trumpet and her guitar in the other as she belts out her cracking voice. It’s a huge stand-out moment tonight.
Angus takes a back seat and sits on the keys in preparation for his slower solo track ‘Who Do You Think You Are’. This track has a strong War On Drugs feel to it with Angus’ rugged vocals. Julia plays backing dancer and gets the crowd clapping along.
“This next song we haven’t played for a while” – Yellow Brick Road, “Angus is gonna start it on his cigar box guitar”. Followed by arguably their most famous track and much loved ‘Big Jet Plane’ was a sing along lighters moment with the crowd. It’s a mixture of new and old tonight.
Julia takes the opportunity to tell us another cute love story. ‘For You’. The combined voices of the crowd and Angus & Julia Stone made the venue feel intimate. Angus introduces the next song ‘My House Your House’ with his view on this years events…
“When we all come together when all the mad shit that’s going on, you guys know about that, in the world it all breaks away and it doesn’t matter anymore”
“This is a special night for us, as its our last night of our UK tour, what a great place to end the tour”
It’s the final stretch of the gig and Julia thanks the band in depth, as she summarises the tour and what part they’ve all played. The final song is the title track off their album ‘Snow’ and had the entire crowd singing back to the beloved pair.
Angus & Julia Stone returned to the stage to perform ‘Grizzly Bear’, followed by a Neil Young encore cover – Harvest Moon, which proved to be the biggest surprise of the night, as well as one of its highlights.
“We haven’t played this song in a very long time, but this guy has been asking all night.” Angus & Julia close the show with another old track – ‘Hollywood’ and then it was complete silence for old favourite ‘Heartbreak’
The gig went past the expected run time of almost 2 hours. It was great to watch them bring the new album to life on stage with a mesmerising show. With the Big Jet Plane days behind them, Angus & Julia Stone are back better than ever.
Setlist
- Baudelaire
- Make It Out Alive
- Cellar Door
- Heart Beats Slow
- Chateau
- Wherever You Are
- Bloodhound
- Private Lawns
- Who Do You Think You Are
- Yellow Brick Road
- Nothing Else
- Big Jet Plane
- For You
- My House Your House
- Snow
- Grizzly Bear
- Hollywood Harvest
- Moon (Neil Young Cover)
- A Heartbreak
