Live Review: Marlon Williams & The Yarra Benders, Jim Lawrie

A mish-mash of players make up Jim Lawrie’s ensemble: the guitarist resembles a member of Oasis, the drummer chews gum in double time and the singer looks like he woke up on his mate’s couch five minutes ago. But guess what? They sound a-okay so close your eyes if you must. 

Tonight’s crowd represents surf-coast kids wearing beanies and tie-dye T-shirts as well as pensioners and everything in between. Marlon Williams arrives on stage solo, patriotically wearing a Lyttelton T-shirt that proves he looks just as good in modern threads as he does the Amish look. The crowd becomes instantly attentive. He performs Strange Things impeccably; the “Oo-oo”s sung in a more mournful than (the usual) ghostly way this evening. Williams welcomes Tim Moore to the stage. The pair singing together for the first time in ages, according to Williams, since Moore used to give Williams gigs in Christchurch. “Tim actually wrote Dark Child,” Williams commands and so this song is fittingly sung as a duet. There’s a killer guitar solo thanks to Dan Parsons.

Williams introduces “a song about amnesia and electric chairs. It’s called, All That I Remember.” Now, imagine how a Kiwi pronounces peddle steel. Yep, Williams perhaps should refer to this instrument just as “steel” from now on. Hello Miss Lonesome in full band incarnation thanks to The Yarra Benders, is thrilling. Drummer Oscar Henfrey confirms that he went to get some cymbals “from Sunbury, The Home of The Ashes”, and Williams admits he’s never heard of either place. Bass player Ben Woolley and Williams’ harmonies during Everyone’s Got Something To Say reflect their many years spent together singing in the Christchurch Cathedral Choir.
While the band take a break, Aldous Harding joins Williams onstage for Lonely Side Of Her and a cover, All I Ever Loved Was You. When Williams adjusts the mic, Harding cranes her neck in an exaggerated fashion by way of reminder that they both need to be able to reach it. Williams’ band returns to the stage and the ‘last song’ is one Williams wrote when he was 17, Trouble I’m In, which the singer-songwriter intros as “very angsty”. It shows on Williams’ face when he needs to concentrate to synch up with his bandmates – just an observation. 

The encore commences with Williams solo, singing When I Was A Young Girl (a live favourite one punter called out a request for earlier in the night, referring to it as “the Nina Simone song”). We’re spellbound until some loud glass-smashing sounds ruin his extended show-off note (CURSES!). Williams makes light of it then The Yarra Benders rejoin him to close with a Screamin’ J Hawkins cover.  

Williams is riveting solo, acoustic and unplugged, but the full band thing allows him to rock out. Audience members linger, this exceptional artist definitely requires further discussion.