I’m not sure there’s a great deal more to say about current darling of the music press Courtney Barnett. We know she’s Australian, and more specifically from Melbourne, we know she writes engagingly about the more mundane aspects of life, and we know she’s just released her debut album to great critical acclaim, but what I didn’t know was how that would translate live.
On Monday night, her mostly sold out tour rolled into Sheffield and the Leadmill - surely at the rate she is gaining momentum this will be the last tour at venues of this size.
After what seemed like an interminably long period following the support band leaving the stage and her over fussy roadies making sure every square inch of the stage was just so, on she walked with the minimum of ceremony with the other 2 members of the band and began playing Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party. This took the sweaty, capacity Leadmill by surprise and it wasn’t quite the explosive start we expected.
It took until the 5th song for the audience to really get going and that was because it was History Eraser from her debut EP release. I’m guessing that as the bulk of the set focussed on the debut album, most of us have only had a week or so living with it so don’t know them off by heart yet. The exception of course was the fabulous single Pedestrian at Best which closed the main set to a enormous ovation.
A couple of encores later, and she and her left handed Fender Strat were done.
So in summary for me, a good if not great gig, by a massively talented young songwriter and guitarist who will only grow and grow as she releases more material. Catch her at a small venue while you can.
