Courtney Barnett – St James Theatre November 6, 2015

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C BarnettThere were two reasons to get excited about last night’s Courtney Barnett show. Of course, there’s Barnett’s own brand of literate rock and roll…but for many, it was also returning to Auckland’s St James Theatre, a venue that holds a lot of memories for a lot of music fans.

For myself, a quite a few other concertgoers, this was the first time in many years they had attended a show at the ST James, and most of the discussions in the lobby before the show seemed to be reminiscences of favourite shows from the past in the proud old venue…Nick Cave, The Eels, Gillian Welsh, Interpol, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, David Byrne.

But when the clock struck 10PM Courtney Barnett and her band were on stage and ready to create some memories of their own. This time around Barnett is playing with bass player Bones Sloane and drummer Dave Mudie, with Courtney handling all the guitar duties herself.

They got straight into it with Avant Gardener, for many the song that was an introduction to Barnett’s music.

Then it was right into Dead Fox, the first of the evening’s offerings from Barnett’s album, Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometime I Just Sit. Eventually she made her way through all but two of the album’s 11 tracks. Dead Fox elicited a Lou Reed/Velvet Underground vibe, sounding not un-similar to Loaded’s Rock & Roll.

Speaking of the vibe, it felt celebratory in the room. Although the show was sold out, it wasn’t too crowded, with only the main floor being used….the upper tier seats remained out of bounds. Courtney seemed a bit distanced from her two bandmembers on the large stage and the sound was somewhat cavernous, making her lyrics difficult to pick out.

It was about 30 minutes into the show before Barnett addressed the crowd, commenting on the room…”That’s a nice ceiling you’ve got here. It’s the best ceiling I’ve seen in my life” and then noting the next song, Depreston also mentions a ceiling.

If the vocals were lost in the mix, Barnett’s guitar certainly wasn’t.

She generated some seriously noisy, squally sounds during Canned Tomatoes (Whole).

The crowd joined in for Elevator Operator and Courtney thanked her fans for their “really good singing”.

She then introduced Boxing Day Blues (Revisited), her new single, recently recorded at Jack White’s Third Man Studio, revealing that the song had been written while she was in Auckland.

There were more guitar-generated fireworks at the end of Are You Looking After Yourself, and the show seemed to ratchet itself up a notch with Kim’s Caravan through to the set closer Pedestrian At Best.

Courtney and the boys returned for one more…History Eraser, from her 2013 EP and an hour and 20 minutes after it began, it was all over.

The larger venue, made the show a little less intimate than when she played The Kings Arms last year, but that’s to be expected as more and more music lovers discover just how good Courtney Barnett is.

She’ll be back to play The Echo Festival in January.

Marty Duda

Courtney Barnett set list:

  1. Avant Gardener
  2. Dead Fox
  3. Small Poppies
  4. Out Of The Woodwork
  5. An Illustration Of Loneliness (Sleepless In New York)
  6. Lance Jr
  7. Depreston
  8. Canned Tomatoes (Whole)
  9. Elevator Operator
  10. Boxing Day Blues (Revisited)
  11. Are You Looking After Yourself
  12. Debbie Downer
  13. Kim’s Caravan
  14. Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party
  15. Pedestrian At Best
  16. History Eraser
Marty Duda
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