Live Review: Marlon Williams, The Weather Station

After years of hard work, countless hours spent in airport lounges and long nights in bars and clubs, it's all paying off, with Marlon Williams' current Australian tour selling out some of the largest venues he's headlined to date.

This time around he's brought along Canadian Tamara Lindeman aka The Weather Station and her band to open and they did a fine job subduing the arriving and chatty audience. Theirs is an understated sound. There are no large musical gestures as songs drift along gently, yet for attentive listeners there's some wonderful detail - shapes and colour - enmeshed in their classic mix of indie and folk. The drums blended post-rock and jazz into the mix while the guitars and occasional keys fleshed out Lindeman's sweet (but not sugary) sounding songs. Her nuanced songwriting may have been lost in the low volume performance but there was still a sense that they gained some new fans in the process.

Marlon Williams has hit adulation street judging from the sound of the whistles and screams that greeted him as he slunk on stage behind the newly expanded Yarra Benders. Now featuring Drones guitarist Dan Luscombe (one person cheekily requested Shark Fin Blues), the band have more options for adding depth, range and texture to Williams' songs. After seeing the band perform these songs a few months before Make Way For Love was released, it was fascinating to see how they've evolved after half a year of touring. Dynamics are more pronounced, drama is heightened and the relaxation that comes with knowing songs inside out was apparent. 

Williams performed a slew of covers including a wonderful reading of Yoko Ono's Nobody Sees Me Like You Do and Barry Gibb's Carried Away. They were fine examples of the way Williams embraces and honours classic songwriting while always being willing to throw in some curveballs and find the dark and quirky corners in a tune. His own What's Chasing You, Love Is A Terrible Thing and Make Way For Love were standouts, the latter two showcasing his voice and inducing slack-jawed, wide-eyed responses from the audience. Julia Jacklin made an appearance on Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore before they rounded out the night with Screamin' Jay Hawkins' Portrait Of A Man. It swung from dark voodoo intimacy to hollering blues-rock psychedelia, capping off a consummate performance from the man of the hour that's still on the rise.