Lime Cordiale provide perfect tonic for Rescue Rooms

Lime Cordiale ensured their first visit to Nottingham was a hugely memorable one as they filled Rescue Rooms with amazing vibes on Tuesday, 27 September.

The Australian pop-rock band, who found fame in their homeland before touring the world, have a decent following in the UK which was proved on the night.

In a treat of a 90-minute set, Oli and Louis Leimbach, plus keyboardist Felix Bornholdt, trombone/guitar master Nick Polovineo and drummer James Jennings, provided non-stop joy with a varied tour of their discography.

The evening began with the electric support of Willow Robinson, an English singer-songwriter who has been living in Los Angeles and oozed class with his covers of the classic ‘Feeling Good’ and Nirvana’s ‘Heart-Shaped Box’.

A close friend of the Lime Cordiale boys, Robinson’s act was on the harder edges of the night’s overall sound, but it offset things nicely and ensured that a return listen to his music was very much necessary.

Sydney’s finest soon arrived dressed in exquisitely-adorned, colourful attire, and Rescue Rooms – which was almost at capacity – got right into the swing of things with opener ‘On Our Own’.

Coming from the band’s second album, ’14 Steps to a Better You’, the track perfectly captures their confused youthful spirit, as well as the sunny disposition that pervades their music.

Those two key elements had me hooked from the moment I first discovered them, roughly two years ago courtesy of their Triple J ‘Like A Version’ of The Divinyls’ ‘I Touch Myself’.

I was addicted to their effortless cool from then, and having learned they also perform the cover on tour, it was the point I was most looking forward to in the night.

In the meantime, though, the five-piece reeled off a smorgasbord of genre-spanning songs including alt-pop effort ‘Naturally’, the incessantly catchy ‘Money’, ‘Dirt Cheap’ and ‘Addicted to the Sunshine’.

Amidst all of this was plenty of scope for each musical element to shine, with Polovineo’s lavish trombone solos drawing particularly great acclaim.

It all served just to underline the quirkiness of the band’s cowboy-cum-hustler garms and infectious on-stage presence, proving themselves to be true masters at their game.

Oli was certainly the more outgoing of the two brothers, with Louis taking a rest during most interactive spells with the crowd but more than making up for it in his incredibly versatile vocal display.

To go straight from slacker anthem Dirt Cheap to Money’s chorus falsettos and then segue into the ska beat of new single ‘Country Club’ took real skill, and the lads pulled it off superbly.

Side note: Oli’s clarinet playing is somehow even better in real life than in the Country Club video too.

Then followed an acoustic, singalong edition of ‘Waking Up Easy’ which Oli joked was Louis’ ‘Ed Sheeran moment’; indulgent or not, it was overwhelmingly successful in getting the full crowd involved.

The laid-back track ‘No Plans to Make Plans’ was another natural hit on the night, surely winning over the venue’s more casual observers.

Short of bringing out collaborator Idris Elba – as they had in their previous show in London – the band then did their utmost to end the night on a big note.

‘I Touch Myself’ was an experience even better than I had imagined, especially when prologued by a post-watershed probing at Louis’ self-love habits.

‘Temper Temper’ delivered the cool in bucketloads, and if fans thought the evening was over there, they would get so much more in the encore.

After a keyboard solo from Bornholdt, the whole band came out for ‘Robbery’ and ‘Inappropriate Behaviour’; probably their two biggest songs which would be earworms for the rest of the night and the days afterwards.

The band got the seal of approval from my girlfriend, who rated them ‘very good’, and the night ended on an even bigger high for us as the band passed by and I shook hands with each member.

They’re proper down-to-earth guys and had a moment for everyone on their way off.

It was an unforgettable evening, and as Lime Cordiale now set off on a non-stop second-half of their European tour this autumn, we can be confident that Nottingham gave them the best possible start.

They gave us all just as much joy too, and they’re very welcome back soon!

All images and videos by Will Hugall.