Lime Cordiale
Lime Cordiale certainly made a real splash on their first visit to The Adrian Flux Waterfront.
On the very week that the Gallagher brothers stole the headlines by announcing that they were getting the band back together, another pair of musical siblings rolled up at the Adrian Flux Waterfront on Saturday night, and demonstrated just how the job of putting on a show should be done. Lime Cordiale were formed by brothers Oli and Louis Leimbach in Sydney, back in 2009. Since then, they have toured almost continuously, initially in Australia and New Zealand, but travelling to the United States in 2014 and 2018 for SXSW, and embarking on their first tour of Europe a year later. They performed at Latitude in 2022 and now, two years later, they finally arrived in Norwich for an early-evening, pre-Propaganda, show at The Adrian Flux Waterfront.
The band’s third full-length album release, 'Enough of The Sweet Talk', was released two months ago and their Norwich setlist contained no less than twelve songs from it. More socially aware and more attitude challenging than 2020's slightly tongue-in-cheek self-help opus '14 Steps To A Better You', it was ‘Pedestal’, the opening track from ‘Enough of The Sweet Talk' with which the band ascended their soapbox to open the evening. A glorious slice of jangly indie rock, complete with rousing chorus, it became an awesome introduction to anyone in the audience (myself included) who had not seen Lime Cordiale before. Those that have followed the band for longer were, however, also able to enjoy earlier songs, including 'Temper Temper' and 'Risky Love' from their 2017 debut album 'Permanent Vacation'.
Oli (on guitar) and Louis (bass) write the songs and also share vocal duties. Joining them on the tour are James Jennings on drums, Jack Howe on guitar and Nikos Haropoulos-Smallman on keyboards. Oli also intermittently plays clarinet, and Louis picks up the trumpet for 'When I'm Losing It'. There is also a touring trombone player that joins them at several points throughout the set. Most surprising of all, though, is Louis' crazy kazoo solo that comes halfway through the anthem-like augustness of 'No Plans to Make Plans'.
The band perform one cover, a cheeky and slightly risqué version of fellow Australian band Divinyls' 1990 hit 'I Touch Myself', which is bizarrely followed by a spoof wrestling bout between the two brothers – maybe a cheeky reference to the Gallagher brothers’ limelight-stealing announcement earlier in the week?
Even though Lime Cordiale's set has already run to a more than generous eighteen songs, the boys still return an deliver a three song encore featuring their 2016 single 'Waking Up Easy', plus two more favourites from '14 Steps To A Better You' - their sing-along special (and most listened-to track on Spotify) 'Robbery', and the bittersweet break-up song 'Inappropriate Behaviour'.
Delightfully Australian in that 'No Worries' kind of way, but displaying a serious social awareness about the world and the environment, Lime Cordiale certainly made a real splash on their first visit to The Adrian Flux Waterfront.
Support came from Perth-based band Great Gable, providing a seven-song set which was infused with a subtle twist on that sun-soaked Aussie sound that seems to make the Antipodean indie music scene so appealing to British audiences. They, too, are welcome to return to Norwich any time they wish.
