Courtney Barnett Lets the Guitar Do the Talking at a Near-Sold-Out Roadrunner
Wednesday nights at Roadrunner don't always fill up. This one came pretty darn close. The crowd that packed in for Courtney Barnett on May 13th skewed toward the longtime faithful, a notably wide age range from people in their twenties to fans well into their seventies, which tells you something about the kind of catalog she's built over the past decade.
Momma opened the evening and made a strong case for arriving early. Their grunge-leaning sound fit the night perfectly, and a vocal contingent in the crowd that seemed to have shown up specifically for them made their set feel less like an opener and more like a co-headliner situation.
Courtney Barnett took the stage and her new album's artwork and aesthetic came to life behind her in the form of a giant praying mantis projected across the backdrop. It’s a striking visual that gave the newer material its own distinct atmosphere. Beyond that, the staging was minimal, which suited her perfectly. Barnett has never been an artist who needs much dressing around her.
What she is, to put it simply, is an exceptional guitar player. That's the thing a Courtney Barnett show reminds you of if you've spent time with her records but haven't seen her live. The guitar work throughout the set was consistently impressive, unhurried and instinctive in a way that makes the difficulty look incidental. She barely said a word between songs for most of the night, letting the playing and the songs carry everything. There's a version of that quality that reads as cold or disengaged. With Barnett it reads as total confidence. She doesn't need to fill the silence because what she's doing in the music is already filling it.
The setlist covered ground across her catalog, opening on "Stay in Your Lane" before moving through "Avant Gardener," "Depreston," and "Elevator Operator," all of which hit just as hard as they have for years. "Mantis," from her new record, was a highlight, somehow sounding even better live than its studio version suggests. The encore closed on "Pedestrian at Best" and "Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go to the Party," two songs that sent a near-capacity Roadrunner home as happy as they arrived.
The crowd that came Wednesday night knew what they were there for. Barnett gave them exactly that, and then a little more.
Courtney Barnett SETLIST:
Stay in Your Lane
City Looks Pretty
Avant Gardener
Small Poppies
Mantis
Site Unseens
Great Advice
Depreston
Elevator Operator
Sugar Plum
Wonder
Before You Gotta Go
Write a List of Things to Look Forward To
One Thing at a Time
Encore
Mostly Patient
Pedestrian at Best
Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go to the Party
COURTNEY BARNETT | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | YOUTUBE
Check out more from our contributor:
