Marlon Williams with The Impossible Orchestra: Make Way For Love

Tonight was the start of the three day Supersense: Festival of the Ecstatic at Arts Centre Melbourne. Mary and I headed down to Hamer Hall to see Marlon Williams and The Yarra Benders play the album Make Way For Love with The Impossible Orchestra, conducted by Brett Kelly. We had amazing seats in the second row, which made the performance feel quite intimate. The band came out on stage all wearing suits for the occasion, with Marlon wearing a blue suit with a black lapel and bow tie.

It was great to hear these songs reinterpreted with the addition of the orchestra as they added even more melancholy and drama to each track. Highlights were "Come To Me," "What's Chasing You," "Make Way For Love" and his duet with Aldous Harding "Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore," in which he sang both parts (despite her being in the Arts Centre for her own show later that evening). We were treated to a brand new unreleased song, as well as some old favorites like "Dark Child," "I'm Lost Without You" and a spine-tingling version of "When I Was A Young Girl." They finished the main set with their usual cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "Portrait Of A Man."

For the encore, Marlon ditched his suit top for a singlet and asked us to indulge his opera fantasy as he sang in French "Je Crois Entendres Encore" from Georges Bizet's opera Les Pecheurs de Perles. Then they finished the night by inviting everyone in the audience to sing along to Harry Nilsson's "Without You" (perhaps best known from Mariah Carey's version of the song). This was such a special show to be able to attend and hear in the acoustics of Hamer Hall and a great way to kick off the weekend.

Here's the video for "Come To Me"