Live Review: Marlon Williams & The Impossible Orchestra

Performing as part of the fourth iteration of Supersense: Festival Of The Ecstatic, Marlon Williams is backed by his current band the Yarra Benders and The Impossible Orchestra, led by master composer Brett Kelly. It’s a lovingly selected arrangement of players and Hamer Hall is the perfect setting for the evening's performance. 

It seems like Williams' song well is bottomless; his music draws from a long line of country and blues music that’s bloodied and dirty yet serene and sweet all at once. He sings dolefully through the fourth number for the night, Beautiful Dress, off his critically acclaimed 2018 LP Make Way For Love. 

Kelly summons up swirling and heady arrangements to complement Williams' set-pieces. I’m Lost Without You spills into Dark Child. Williams explains it was written by his friend Tim Moore as the rhythm section locks into a shadowy groove. He lets the back-end of the song ride out, sitting completely still with a blissful smile; it’s evident he’s savouring this fleeting moment as much as the rest of us.

The Roy Orbison-flavoured What’s Chasing You bops along and Party Boy gets our singer bopping too. New Zealand treasure Aldous Harding, Williams' former partner, is playing the Supersense later tonight and it’s Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore, a tune they co-wrote, that displays the full extent of her influence on our charming bard. 

“Ever since I was a small child I’ve wanted to sing opera... This is the only chance I’ll get,” he shares before filling the hall with Italian and indulging the orchestra. The night closes with a cover of Harry Nilsson’s Without You to end a beautifully sculpted 90 minutes.