Reviewed on Thursday May 7 (photo by Katrina Clarke)
Courtney Barnett is finding out what happens when a proudly indie artist releases a critically and commercially successful debut album; you sell out ever-larger venues faster then the time that’s required to refine your sound to make it big enough to fill such venues.
That’s not a slight on the always-solid backing of Bones Sloane on bass and Dave Mudie on drums, or Barnett herself. It’s just that at a place such as the bass-heavy Metro, Barnett’s charming indie twang can get drowned out. So the jaunty ‘Elevator Operator’ that begins her album became a sluggish concert opener that underwhelmed – a feeling that followed for half the concert. No matter how energetic the players onstage were (and they can’t be faulted for performance), they couldn’t overcome the muddy sound of the room.
That’s a usual trapping of a standard three-piece set-up. I know her usual ancillary guitarist Dan Luscombe can’t always be in attendance (as he wasn’t here) thanks to Drones-related duties – although, if a permanent joint tour of The Drones and The Courtney Barnetts could be arranged, that would be great – but a secondary guitarist would go a long way in beefing up the group’s sound, and would free up Barnett to deliver more of her brilliantly ragged solo work that she can’t always do if she’s the sole guitarist.
It’s no surprise, then, that the songs that matched the intensity projected off the stage were the ones where Barnett turned on a bunch of fuzz and distortion pedals and just let loose. ‘Pedestrian At Best’, ‘Canned Tomatoes (Whole)’ and ‘Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party’ were the songs that really got the Metro moving. Slow burners ‘Small Poppies’ and ‘Kim’s Caravan’ did one better – their incremental waves of noise momentarily hypnotised the crowd.
I say momentarily, because the other new development when becoming a quick success is the increase in gig attendees who are only there to hear one song. While it was gratifying to hear a roomful of people sing along to the hook in the brilliant ‘Depreston’, I’m not sure it was worth having no choice for the rest of the concert but to listen to a group of dudes around me debate the merits of the new Avengers movie (they weren’t big fans).
For those types of punters, it would have been a decent gig. They got good performances of the singles, and that would have been enough. But for the more devoted, this was a glimpse of a great artist going through some growing pains as she rapidly expands her fan base. Hopefully she works it out soon, and starts delivering the type of fantastic gigs her recorded output hints at.
