Live Review: Marcus Whale, Banoffee, Brenden Welch

Tonight is an intimate affair. The stripped-back nature of Three Keys, which is put on by Melbourne record label Two Bright Lakes for Melbourne Music Week, reveals an unseen side to three exceptional musicians who don’t typically play with just a piano – or solo.

First up is Brendan Welch and, to put it simply, he is devastatingly good. Opening song Hunk Of Meat establishes Welch as the troubadour he is so often heralded as and we follow him through the adventure of this song. His haunting, heartbreaking vocals catch us off guard this early in the evening, especially during his song I Think I Always Thought. He kind of reminds us of Glen Hansard’s character from Once and, no, it’s not just because he has red hair and a beard. Much to the audience’s delight, Welch covers Robyn’s Dancing On My Own as well as Björk’s Pagan Poetry, which he performs with grace and plenty of emotion.

Up next is Banoffee and she carries a takeaway herbal tea on stage as her voice is getting a little raspy. This is only really evident when she talks, because when singing she sounds gorgeous. Banoffee hits a couple of road blocks tonight, but she happily engages in sweary banter with the crowd while figuring out her next move. Banoffee explains the difficulty she has playing songs on a piano when it’s not typically her weapon of choice, but Reign Down and her Drake cover are both brilliant. Despite being very hesitant to play Ninja in this acoustic setting, Banoffee obliges and you know what? We dig it. Not sure whether to end on this note, she decides to play Let’s Go To The Beach and shyly finishes her set.

Marcus Whale, one half of Collarbones and band member of Black Vanilla, is the final piece of tonight’s musical puzzle. Whale opens with Hypothermia and plays other excellent Collarbones tracks such as Cocooned and Too Much with a distinctive, raw quality. His vocal range is endlessly impressive and within his between song banter he shares Banoffee’s early sentiments of the difficulties faced when playing in such an untypical way. We get our second Björk cover for the evening, Sun In My Mouth, which is expansive and dramatic. Whale appears quite vulnerable despite his undeniable talent and it’s not until the end of the evening that he bravely bares an intimate detail about himself. Laura Mvula’s Father Father is the final song of Whale’s set and the event ends on a heavy-but-heartwarming note. It’s been emotional.