Images by Dan Lynch //
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
We turned it off and kept shooting the music video. And then my girlfriend just screamed. She kept following it. She’s interested in what was going on. She’s like, “What the fuck?” And that was just a hectic moment for us just to get that one song in something that we’ve been following for years. It was huge.
L: I hate when people aren’t into it because I’m always like, “Oh, let’s have a little party.” And people are like, “Oh, whatever. I’m not around. I can’t be bothered.” It’s a good excuse for a party anyway.
