Courtney Barnett is a force to be reckoned with – as proven with a unique, intimate performance at The Trades Club.
From her first compilation A Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas in 2013 to new album Creature Of Habit, Barnett has gathered a sizable audience for her messy-country rock. So, before embarking on a big North American tour, it feels ridiculously special to get to see her in a 200 capacity venue in a small Yorkshire town.
Barnett has an impressive history of material. Hailing from Sydney, Australia she first played guitar for Rapid Transit and then developed versions of her own songs with The Olivettes. She played slide guitar in Immigrant Union and continued with different bands while shaping her solo work.
Her debut album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit pushed her into the zeitgeist and various additional projects – including a collaborative album with Kurt Vile – further established her place in the alt-rock landscape. A Grammy nomination followed and now, with her fifth solo album, she is attracting new waves of support.
I have never seen The Trades so busy. Every corner is crowded and there’s an anxious queue to get into the main room. It’s an early start, which appeals to many – no support and Barnett’s on at 8. It’s hard to even navigate the space due to the thick excitement in the air. It’s evident how important this show is to people as I encounter many American and Australian accents as I wait. There were reports of people flying in for this gig. Then suddenly, she’s on stage and everyone seems to collectively lose their minds.
Barnett comes across as incredibly humble and, despite this passionate response, she presents as a highly introspective poet type. The shy superstar. She opens with Stay In Your Lane but the show truly kicks off with Avant Gardener – its tongue-in-cheek, upbeat melodies enunciating the real and rather stressful tale of events being sung. It garners plenty of affection from the crowd.
Playing left-handed, every track Barnett plays is fuelled with these room-filling guitar solos. Each one only seems to get more intricate with its groove as time goes on. Throughout the gig she’s frequently leaned over her guitar, completely lost in the sound. The music is sun-soaked in its power. She takes all the most interesting parts from care-free youth and complicated adulthood and rolls them into a non-stop, deadpan stream of consciousness.
Mantis from her latest album rings gently through the room, playing into that country-laced indie-rock that defines her sound. It’s an incredibly difficult song to dislike: smooth and soulful in all the right places. On a similar note, Depreston is charming in its mundanity – described by Barnett as “a song about house hunting”. Each song feels like an intimate slice of her life, often bittersweet and always pleasing on the ear.
The new tracks played back to back, Great Advice to Sugar Plum to One Thing At A Time, really bring home just how confident her vision is. There is certainly an evolution occurring, with Barnett moving further into a dreamy, reverbed soundscape. It would be an understatement to say she has a cult following. The music seems to mean so much to the people watching, which is really brought home with the intimacy of the show.
The band launch into the hard-hitting staple that is Pedestrian At Best. There is something intoxicating about it and the effect it has on the room. The relentless punk spirit prompts about half a moshpit on a Monday night. It’s further ramped up by the closer Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party, which must be up there as the best song title of recent years. I really adore this move into energetic show endings. Too often a band tries to calm everyone down by the end with an acoustic track. The energy keeps the buzz alive and the crowd are thrilled; intense with their praise after the show.
I can’t help but leave thinking that this show was a once in a lifetime experience. Me and 200 other people witnessing something entirely otherworldly for an hour. Courtney Barnett has an addictive power on stage and is destined for even more greatness.
Words by Poppy Cortese
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