Live Review: The Orbweavers, Shiver Like Timber

Shiver Like Timber (the musical endeavours of Sydneysider Betony Dircks) bring sweet ideas, chords and harmonies to those gathered for this Sunday matinee show. However, playing as sole support for The Orbweavers, it feels like a bold venture to manage electric guitar and loop pedals alone. This is not to suggest it can't be done with immense fluidity and success, but Shiver Like Timber's set certainly leaves us hovering awkwardly. There are echoes of PJ Harvey and even a little bit of Adalita, but for the moment it is without the full robustness of either. Dircks' intensity and confidence grows as the set edges to its conclusion, which pleases the family friendly crowd sprawled lazily across the venue floor.

Moons, ceiling roses and the names of The Orbweavers' favourite Melbourne suburbs – Footscray, Brunswick and Spotswood, among others – now adorn the stage. When the headliners take their places, acknowledging the traditional owners the land, they face a committed and humbled crowd. Celebrating the release of dual single Ceiling Rose/Match Factory, The Orbweavers cushion this centrepiece with tracks taken predominately from 2009's Graphite And Diamonds and 2011's Loom, dazzling the audience with their unity and knowledge. Leading lady Marita Dyson admits towards the end of the show that this set takes on “a bit of a waterway theme”, which makes sense given song titles such as Horse Shoe Lake. This song is a recollection of Melbourne's natural history that Dyson says is about “things you hold in your mind that are something else in reality”. The band eloquently fuse tales of antiquity with a modern twist.

Dyson and lead guitarist Stuart Flanagan are tremendous orators throughout the set and they speak profoundly on the history of Melbourne's architecture and landscape. Their apparent thirst for knowledge is genuinely inspiring and the audience engages with each nugget of information while investing in the emotion of every accompanying personal anecdote. Tracks outside this theme are also played, including You Can Run (a song for their adopted greyhound, Fern). With the scent of verbena and rosemary filling the bandroom (also provided by the band), an hour spent with The Orbweavers is a thoughtful conversation about spirit, adventure, home and history, not to mention the great music.