Live Review: Paul Kelly Presents The Merri Soul Sessions, Hiatus Kaiyote

It’s a mighty languid crowd lazing about Melbourne Zoo in the early evening heat.

Even Hiatus Kaiyote playing the beautifully intricate Mobius Streak can’t tear punters away from their own personal brie-and-stuffed-olive fests. What about Nakamarra? Do the picnickers care they’re hearing Australia’s first Grammy-nominated R&B track played live in all its splendour? Nope. Bassist Paul Bender and drummer Perrin Moss admirably pump out the sumptuous rhythm anyway, while oblivious parents shepherd their preschoolers off to the toilets. Lead singer and guitarist Nai Palm presses on to dedicate The World It Softly Lulls to “all the animals and lions and stuff,” before the zoo crowd sends off Australia’s finest R&B/soul band with nothing but piss-weak applause. The heat’s just no excuse, people.

Paul Kelly Presents The Merri Soul Sessions gets started with Smells Like Rain. Given the threatening grey clouds now moving over the zoo, the song is bang-on correct. Kelly gets plenty of cheers next as he swings on his acoustic guitar and takes the lead vocals on Righteous Woman with Vika and Linda Bull belting out the back-up. Clairy Browne makes a sexy entrance to sing a verse, but the crowd ignores her to instead freak out over ominous drops of rain and a crazy cool-change squall. While the well-prepared chuck on plastic ponchos, the rest start preparing to make a run for it. Dan Sultan comes out and gives a worried glance towards the sky before singing Don’t Let A Good Thing Go, containing the very unfortunate lyrics, “Soon you’ll be standing out in the pouring rain.” 

Luckily, the rain stops and the classic How To Make Gravy from Kelly calms everyone down. A cover of When Something Is Wrong With My Baby led by Sultan and Browne adds a confusing touch of Barnsey to the evening, while only a few little kids comply when Kelly prompts people to get up and dance to Song From The Sixteenth Floor. A group singalong to gospel-style Hasn’t It Rained (stop it!) marks the faux-ending of the night, before the gang return for an encore version of vintage Kelly’s Dumb Things. Finally about 100 people get up and dance, many of them badly. Huddled around a mic, Kelly then leads all the Merri Souls through the beautiful a cappella Meet Me In The Middle Of The Air. The tired child moaning loudly throughout the gorgeous performance adds the perfect end-of-a-long-hot-day touch.