By DAN MACINTOSH
LOS ANGELES – What you may not realize when listening to Courtney Barnett albums is what a monster she is on guitar. In fact, she performs live as a power trio, with just a drummer and bassist accompanying her. Touring in support of her Things Take Time, Take Time album, Barnett brought her wonderfully noisy act to downtown’s The Theatre at Ace Hotel, and consistently thrilled this adoring audience.
Barnett opened with her lyrically stream-of-consciousness favorite, with the pun-y title, “Avant Gardener,” and then proceeded to perform one (mostly) punchy rock song after the other. Barnett is not a pretty singer like, say, Adele. Instead, the southpaw Australian sings with a sometimes-cynical conversational style. However, she’s also begun to augment her tough girl rockers with prettier songs, such as “Oh The Night” and “Here’s The Thing,” which soften her profile significantly. Much like Chrissie Hynde before her, Barnett proves how a girl can be both pretty and gentle, without sacrificing any creative edge.
The evening’s encore featured vocal help from the two Lucious leads (Jess Wolfe and Holly Lessig), who have become the sort of go-to backing vocalists for Los Angeles acts these days. One of Barnett’s encores was Gillian Welch’s “Everything is Free,” which is as relevant now in the Spotify age as it was during the file sharing free music days of Napster’s inception. It’s an unusually contemporary Welch lyric, which Barnett performed wonderfully and sincerely.
One of the highlights from Things Take Time, Take Time, “Turning Green,” was also a standout live. On it, Barnett really lets loose on guitar, which elicited spontaneous audience applause before she was finished. Barnett didn’t talk much between songs, but pulled a fast one when she asked the audience if they’d like to hear a Beatles cover. She then said, “This one’s from the White Album,” only to follow this statement with her own “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party.”
Many bemoan to current slow death of Rock ‘N Roll. Real Rock ‘N Roll is rare, and female rockers are even rarer. It’s why Courtney Barnett’s intelligent, aggressive approach is appreciated by many.
Video courtesy of Randy Maxwell: