Holly Throsby

I’m sure Holly Throsby doesn’t think she’s funny. Yet with her between-song banter doused in sardonic wit and dry, self-deprecating humour, you can’t help but laugh. “We’ve gone all pop,” Holly says by way of describing her latest single, ‘A Heart Divided’. “But don’t worry, we’re still depressed as ever.” Is there such a genre as emo folk?

The Factory, situated on that fuzzy line between Enmore and Marrickville, looks like an RSL club. I think the carpet’s to blame. Holly Throsby isn’t really an RSL kind of girl, either. So they’ve cordoned off half the room and erected black curtains to put the “theatre” back into The Factory and create a suitably intimate setting for the show.

Holly opens her set with an unreleased number aptly titled ‘To Begin With’. Alone on stage despite her self-effacing nature, she cuts a stunningly beautiful figure. She sings in that hazy, pack-a-day voice that’s become her signature. It’s a love-or-hate style, and I’m on the fence. I find it endearing to begin with, but she lacks variety in her range to sustain an hour-long show. Yet when she cordially invites everyone inside because she’s making a fire, I’m right there beside her with a bag of marshmallows in tow.

After starting solo, Holly’s joined by bassist Jens Birchell and drummer extraordinaire Bree van Reyk, best friends playing a sublime and cosy set of endearing folk tunes. The trio have taken requests for this tour, so the setlist runs the gamut of Holly’s released, and soon to be released, material. ‘Things Between People’ cuts deep in everyone’s hearts, because we’ve all been reeled in and reeled out. She steps outside herself and becomes the elderly lady with a penchant for roses in the mournful ‘A Widow’s Tale’, another new song off her forthcoming album A Loud Call, and one in which Holly finally opens up, embraces her head voice and adds that variety I’ve been pining for. It’s vulnerable and full of doubt, but then again, so are we. And therein lies her appeal.

by Dom Alessio