Live music review: Courtney Barnett and Here and There Festival at ACL Live
This past Thursday evening in Austin, found the Courtney Barnett curated, Here and There Festival planting it’s all female fronted bands version of the revolving lineup on the ACL Live at the Moody stage. While the constantly changing touring artists has featured the likes of Wet Leg, Fred Armisen, Lucy Dacus, Snail Mail, Japanese Breakfast, Bartees Strange, just to name a few of the many diverse artists making some of the most impactful music today, Austin fans were treated to support acts Ethel Cain and Indigo Souza on this night as they were warmed up the audience for the main act, Melbourne’s Courtney Barnett.
Cain’s ethereal, southern baptist upbringing influenced, indie-pop a fitting start to the evening that found Indigo De Souza’s musically upbeat, tinged with gloomier lyrical content, performance a well suited transition into the work of Australia’s indie-rock success story, Courtney Barnett. Throngs of young female fans gathered early at the front of the stage, quickly getting into the emotionally impactful evening, belting out lyrics in chorus for the opening performers in overwhelming approval of their role in the evening’s proceedings. While the younger generation may have been persuaded to attend by the opening artists, a diverse demographic of fans filled the venue for the entirety of the show.
As Barnett took to what appeared to be a bit more of a stripped down stage (more on this later) compared to her openers, with a solo mic stand in the middle of the stage and only a short riser for the other two musicians sharing the space. Band members and constants since 2013, Bones Sloane (bass) and Dave Mudie (drums) flanked Barnett on opposite sides of the riser providing a solid backdrop, holding down the rhythm and providing the occasional backing vocal for the wall of sound that the trio has mastered over the years.
Taking little time to get into familiar, popular territory, which isn’t much of a feat seeing as Barnett’s career and popularity exploded at the release of her 2015 debut full-length release Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, garnering nominations and snatching awards in multiple categories over the years, she’s been hard to ignore. Two songs into the set found “Avant Gardener”, the early attention grabber both in tonight’s set and in Barnett’s career, tipping the crowd edging the crowd closer to full-tilt, guitar-driven, rock experience that lay ahead.
Aside from the track after track after track of crowd pleasing selections, it’s impossible to ignore how comfortable Barnett seems to feel on stage with a guitar in hand, and a microphone at her disposal. There have been great musicians over the years, those that appear to have an instrument as an extra appendage. And there are those who are great songwriters and front bands with an authority that finds their talent undeniable. Courtney is the perfect blend of both. The aforementioned space allotted on the stage served as her playground where, when not attending to the quirky, average-life affirming lyrical content, she explored with her guitar and her rock star moves. Her personality on stage finds comfort in her songs, translating into a stage presence that is as comfortable as hanging with your best friend. She wields her guitar with such casual precision that it seems second nature for her to create the intricate wall of sound that weaves its way through her songs. Making an early connection with the fans in the crowd, acknowledging a song request written on a large sheet of paper, and promising that it’s time will come later in the evening, her joy and passion for her art felt full swell on this evening.
As for the tracks, she covered enough ground touching equally on all three of her full-length recordings with some EP selections thrown in, to satisfy a fan of any level of commitment to her work. Mixing in familiars “Nameless, Faceless” and “Depreston” early in the set then dropping tempo for a short bit, Barnett kicked off an exuberant second half of her performance with the food stomping upbeat “Elevator Operator” igniting a newfound energy in the crowd.
An energy pushed to a fever pitch with a string of selections beginning with “History Eraser”, “Pedestrian at Best”, and the paper sheet requested “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party”. A short exit from the stage and Barnett returned for a solo performance of “Oh The Night” before sending us all off with the band on board for the fitting “Before You Gotta Go”.
Over the decades we’ve seen traditional rock band experiences, complete with drums, bass, and guitar, become somewhat of a minority in a modern music world where computer generated beats, backing tracks, electronic synth machines, and more dancers than instruments have come into fold on a much larger scale. Not to say that rock is dead, in fact tonight’s performance only solidifies the fact that people still want to get down and rock. As the old adage goes… rock-n-roll will never die. And surely not as long as Courtney Barnett has anything to say about it.
All photos by Michael Maly
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