Live Review: Dope Lemon, Sloan Peterson

Sloan Peterson gives us a taste of her nostalgic dream pop infused with the sounds of the ‘60s and ’70s. Her catchy new wave vibe hooks us in and gets us moving to the summertime sounds from another time. She debuts a new song that she’s never sung live before called Sick And Selfish and a cover of Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, which suits her style perfectly.  Her final song is another new one released just two weeks ago (Wear My Heart Out) and features singer-songwriter Pearl (who also plays keyboards for tonight’s show). Peterson tells us that this pop rock track was written during a lockdown about their shared experience of how it affected them, and they’re pleased to be able to have the freedom to play it for us live.

Dope Lemon grace the stage with frontman Angus Stone wearing a large poncho and signature cowboy hat to match their country-folk-rock style. The band’s outfits are all tied together with the same theme in matching suits and hats.

They’ve put a lot of effort into creating an incredibly visual element to their performance that immediately catches our eye. Not only have they hung their own gold curtains in the theatre but they’ve also incorporated stunning graphics on the screen behind them filled with bursting colour and trippy kaleidoscope animations. We become immersed in their dreamy soundscape of psychedelic coastal rock.

The theatre becomes washed in a sea of red lighting as they launch right into some heavier guitar jams upfront with Stone Cutters and How Many Times, soaked in reverberating vocals, live banjos and sliding guitar riffs. They deliver fan favourite Marinade to slightly alter the tone and quickly mellow out the audience.

Stone brings the musical vision of their new album Rose Pink Cadillac to life on stage with new songs that cook up more of an experimental sound mixing up soulful grooves, seductive guitar vibes and breezy melodies in one trippy pot. Visuals of a car flying through the air take us down the rabbit hole to forget our troubles as we absorb the infectious melodies and groove along to the blissful tones.

They share their song Fuck Things Up from their debut album. “It’s all good as long as you learn from your mistakes,” says Stone as he croons the hypnotic and relatable track. The band takes a short break for Stone to play a new song solo for the first time live with his harmonica.

The band return for a big finisher for Home Soon, including dancers with big cat costumes on their heads and even a Dope Lemon head too. After a quick farewell tease, they return for an encore of Kids Fallin’ In Love to send us off with a sweet and soulful, laidback finisher.