Laura Marling

Laura Marling, the 20-year old singer-songwriter and darling of the folk world brought her unique blend of alt/folk music to Melbourne’s Hi Fi Bar. Initially touring as part of the ‘wayfarer sunglasses heartland’ that is the Splendour in the Grass music festival, much to the delight of Australian audiences, Marling found time to further excite & enthuse by adding a number of side-shows to her second tour down under in seven months!
‘Boy and Bear’ set the scene early and were an engaging opening act. Not often is a venue at capacity before the headliner even hits the stage but the sold out crowd were already there in force to support the gifted quintet out of New South Wales. With harmonies that screamed all things ’Fleet Foxes’, the audience embraced the boys like it was a headlining gig. Their musicality was showcased during a cover of Bon Iver’s ‘St Vincent’ with a haunting interpretation of the already haunting track. After concluding with crowd favourite and new single ‘Rabbit Song’ they thanked the crowd and much to the delight of all present, “the amazing Laura Marling - who will be out shortly”.
The screams that greeted Laura Marling as she arrived on stage were loud enough for me to question the structural integrity of the venue. With a gentle ‘half-curtsy’ and a quiet “hello”, Marling broke into ‘Devil’s Spoke’. Beginning with just vocals and acoustic guitar, gradually the band piped up and entered the fray with a cello and big bass adding further depth to the wonderful arrangement. Eventually by the first chorus line there was a powerful amassing of rhythm and music coming from all sectors of the stage and immediately, amidst the musical passion on show, we all knew this was going to be a special night!
There were no gimmicky pyrotechnics, no complex visuals, and certainly no hype-monkey’s needed to lift crowd spirits. For just over an hour, Marling and the sheer power of her melodies were all that was needed as the focus. The seemingly simplistic refrains (which alarmingly some obnoxious musical know-it-all’s refer to as underdone) constantly provided the audience with both delight and utter enthralment. Marling is well known for her lyrical prowess and unyielding knack to draw the crowd in which she achieves by an infectious character coupled with constant mid-song awkwardly sweet-yet-witty banter.
Crowd favourite ‘rambling man’ was soon introduced and seemed to provide an almost celestial experience for some in the audience (in fact one unfortunate member fainted), whilst others were content to sway calmingly to the melancholy melody. Marling’s often agonisingly emotive tracks constantly left the audience entranced. Seeming almost effortless, she simply opened her voice and pierced the darkness of the room with her songs – wavering & trembling, rising & soaring, summing up all of your hopes and sufferings in a single haunting melody.
That is the nature of her live show, she draws you in no matter who or what you are and makes you feel, think, dream, wish and for some, forget the goings on in life outside the Hi Fi at that moment. Marling’s show embodied all that I love about music and it was obvious the crowd were united in this sentiment – that something as simple as a well crafted melody can lift up an entire audiences collective soul to a place where any hurt is temporarily pacified.
From there on it was crowd favourite after crowd favourite and included an interesting and welcomed cover of Jackson C Frank’s classic cult hit ‘Blues run the Game’. The highlight of the set came with ‘Night Terrors’, at which point the band left the stage, leaving Marling alone, casting a solitary figure with a single spotlight on her face. Audience participation was welcomed during this song in the form of what I have coined, a ‘whistle symphony’, in place of the studio recording’s violin solo. This provided the perfect opportunity for the rhythmic talents of the crowd to be represented with the sold-out crowd whistling along in unison (and thankfully for the most part, in tune) as Marling continued to captivate.
With the band back on stage after Marling had exposed us to some new material, we were told that historically, Marling and co. had shunned the encore. In the spirit of full disclosure Marling very diplomatically told us that she is "not quite rock n’ roll enough for an encore so if you wanted one there is one song left, but if not there are two." Thus, with an ‘encore’ including ‘Your Only Doll (Dora)’ and the title track of her latest release, ‘I Speak Because I Can’, the audience left knowing they had heard what they had come to hear – almost the entire back catalogue!
SETLIST:
1) Devil’s Spoke
2) Hope in the Air
3) Rambling man
4) Ghosts
5) My manic and I
6) Blackberry Stone
7) Night Terrors
8) NEW SONG
9) New song #2
10) Jackson c frank cover, Blues run the game
11) Goodbye England (Covered in snow)
12) What He Wrote
13) Alpha Shallows
14) Your only Doll (Dora)
15) I Speak Because I Can

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