DOPE LEMON
July 13, 2017
The Cambridge Hotel
Angus Stone surprised many last year with his psych-folk project Dope Lemon. The former Northern Beaches native found a sedated sound that was beautiful and effective in its simplicity, perfectly suited to his measured vocals and general less-is-more knack at melodies.
Dope Lemon’s music is far superior to that produced by Angus and Julia Stone, the sibling duo that became internationally famous. Despite the extreme and undeniable popularity that the brother and sister have garnered, this reviewer has always found them decidedly beige. Separately, they seem to strike richer veins of creativity. Julia’s 2012 record By the Horns was gorgeous – perhaps her best work. Coincidence? Are they better apart? So far, yes.
While Dope Lemon’s Halcion grooves were beautifully recorded on last year’s Honey Bones record, and this year’s follow-up EP Hounds Tooth, it will be a big test to see how the sun-drenched stoner arrangements translate to a cavernous sold-out Cambridge Hotel.
Stone and his Dope comrades take to the stage as silhouettes, building a buzz of feedback and distortion. There are, after all, some serious shoegaze influences at work here. But it’s quickly apparent that the limited space at the back of the room is not the best place to be watching this gig. You need to be up there on the barricade. Stone is not a projector; he’s very much an insular performer and requires concentration to truly appreciate. But tonight the kidlets are jammed in like sardines, stewing in their own juices, and this reviewer has more than filled his quota of fish work.
The sound is suitably murky during irresistible tunes like the sublime ‘Uptown Folks’ and rolls throughout the dim stage lighting, save for a bright glass lantern that hangs eerily at one end of the stage – apparently a gift from Julia to Angus – that casts scattered shards of light as it turns to the music. As Stone, in his trademark cap, cruises through his set with his trademark nonchalance, it’s apparent that this performance would be suited to an outdoor stage, the sun overhead and waves crashing somewhere within earshot – the dark expanse of the Cambridge’s refurbished band room, now an 800-cap abyss, seems to dwarf the band’s uber-laconic presence.
Stone’s project doesn’t quite Brian Jonestown Massacre’s transcendental wall-of-sound or the shimmering malaise of Kurt Vile, but he’s somewhere in their kaleidoscopic world. He breaks up his own material with an impressive cover of The Animals’ ‘House of the Rising Sun’, in which Stone seems to find another gear whilst channeling the muscular vocal parts made famous by Eric Burdon. He actually roars one of the key notes, providing a glimpse of the energy that Stone could bring to his own material if he could shed the painfully introverted cloak of shyness.
The Dope Lemon material appeared after many years of existence as Stone’s slow-burning bedroom project, something that took a back seat to his very successful work with his sister. It’s quite possible that Stone never intended to perform it live. When you consider that the songs were amongst the best music released in 2016, and were played frequently by Triple J, it makes sense that he’d take the material on the road. But what’s been apparent during this 50-minute set, with no encore, is that Stone hasn’t quite found a way to make Dope Lemon surpass the breezy, infectious sound of the record. This show has been an effective facsimile, but Honey Bones played through a big pair of headphones is just as sweet.
