Images by Dan Lynch //

Lime Cordiale kicked of The Beach Hotel’s new Homegrown event series, which will see the best Aus artists take over the iconic Newy venue…

Naturally, with LWA’s roots planted firmly in the sandy soil of Newcastle, we couldn’t resist the chance to get along to The Beaches and catch one of our favourite bands in an intimate 500-capacity setting. With a US tour about to kick off, and having just spent a week or so in Byron rehearsing new tunes, Lime Cordiale were in fine form as they performed to a raucous crowd.

With cans of Largo (the Lime boys’ new beer) raised to the roof, the band breezed through the hits, many of which from their now legendary 2020 LP 14 Steps To A Better You. We caught up with them briefly to chat about the Newy scene, their venture into the booze industry and more. Check it below and hit the gallery above for the best pics from the night:

You guys have been beer barons for a few months now. How has that experience been for you? How does it connect with the music biz?

Louis: Oli was a bit of a beer baron before we launched Largo… Just making some shocking home brew.

Oli: You’re always really proud of your own home brew and then you give it to someone, they’re like, “I don’t want to try that.” You’re just, “Oh no. Have a try. It’s actually really good.” They’re like, “I don’t know… I’ll have a VB.” And you’re like, “Just fucking try it, please.” And then they’re like, “It just tastes like home brew, man.” You’re like, “I swear it doesn’t.”

But no, with Largo, it was a bit more high level where we worked with actual brewers. We were like the visionaries. It was our vision. And we had this huge beer taste testing, which is gnarly because they just put up a whole bunch of beers and you just try all these beers. And you have no idea if you’re even making sense by the end of it. “That one’s fucking really good. And then this one, I actually think that this one’s got this bit of metallic taste to it.”

In terms of it being connected to the music industry, it is pretty much pretty hand in hand, drinking beer and playing music. I feel like if you’re a beer drinker, you’re halfway towards being a musician anyway.

If you were to make a Newy beer, what would its flavour profile be?

O: Newcastle’s pretty working class people. That’s the reputation of Newcastle. I feel like it’s just something that people can get down… as quick as possible.

You’re about to play to a few hundred people in Newy, what excites you about playing in small rooms to not so many people?

L: We are pretty used to doing the small gigs. I think we are investing overseas a lot, so we go to Detroit and play in front of 50 people, which we did six months ago. They’re small shows and it’s really nice. It’s intimate as hell and you can just chat to someone in the front row.

I love playing Newcastle as well. I was saying before that I think the first time we ever got out of Sydney or even out of the Northern Beaches, our first shows were in Newcastle. And we’ve played here before, played at this pub.

O: [Since the renovations] they’ve set it up so well downstairs. And I just love talking to the owner who’s just really set on bringing music to this area and bringing music back here. It’s cool being able to support that. We were just up the coast rehearsing for five days for 2024 shows. And then this is us testing out new material and a new set.

L: We’re kind of nervous.

What do you think of Newy crowds?

O: [Playing in Newy] It’s just way more fun, mainly for that reason, where people are just super appreciative of it. It’s similar to where we grew up in Northern Beaches. And there are quite a few venues in Newcastle. It’s always been a bit of a music hub, so supporting that’s mad.

You guys collaborate more than most indie rock acts – Grentperez / Idris Elba etc. What turns you on about collaboration? What do you get out of it?

O: It is weird. It feels like it’s more of a hip hop thing to do, right? You don’t really see the Strokes or something collaborating with people very often. I think that’s why we almost made it feel like it was a new band with the Idris stuff. It’s this Cordi Elba thing where it was actually nice for us because it was an excuse to be able to move into different territory. He was our excuse to do stuff that’s a bit more hip hop. But I’d like to do more and the weirder we can go the better.

L: I think they just happen as well. We were never looking for collabs really. Maybe one. We had one song that we wanted someone to sing on and that ended up being just Elba. But the other one, Grentperez, we just were having a jam and then we’re like, “Yeah, let’s just release it.”

The hottest 100 will have just happened by the time this interview goes live. Do you still get nervous/excited when the day rolls around?

O: I’m over the waiting… You get to this point where you’re like, “I don’t think we’re going to be in it.” And that’s happened every year. The first year we were ever in the hottest 100 was with one song ‘Dirt Cheap’. It came in at 87. And we were shooting the music video for ‘Money’ on the day and we started listening to it and we thought maybe there could be a chance that we’d creep in at number 100 or 99, 98. And we didn’t. And so we were like, oh, well, whatever. Next year maybe.