I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: May 12, 2026] Courtney Barnett

Before Courtney started, a woman near us was talking to someone who had not seen her before and she said to be ready because she rocks a lot harder that you may think.  And she totally does.  For a trio, her band totally ripped. And when she soloed, it never felt like a bass player playing behind one guitar.

I can’t remember what the audience was like for her last time, but this time I found them really awful.  There were some metal dudes to the side of us who were headbanging and almost moshing.  But it was only the few of them and they did not sit well with the other people around us.  There was a guy who was very chatty with everyone around him throughout the set and the poor woman in front of me really could never see well no matter how she arranged herself until she finally moved elsewhere about half way through the set.  I think once she moved I felt better too.  But my poor wife was behind a woman with very long white hair, which we initially thought would be a safe place, but she proved to be a writhing, arm waving irritant, who never moved up into the ample space in front her.  So yea, even though Courtney was great, the show was annoying.

But you can’t blame Courtney for her fans,

She came out on stage and launched right into Stay in Your Lane, the ubiquitous single from her new album.  The song is fun, but it’s even more fun when she gets to do her live guitar work around it.

I’m intrigued to see that eight years later, her second and third songs of her set were the same: City Looks Pretty and Avant Gardner (which the crowd went berserk for).

Courtney stands on the far left of the stage (because she’s a lefty?).  But when she has a longer instrumental section, she moves toward the middle of the stage, which is fun to see her showing off a bit.

For this tour her drummer was Stella Mozgawa who is a force of nature.  I Thought I had seen her a lot more than I have (I think perhaps only once before), but I was supposed to have seen her withher band Warpaint and as a solo artist opening for Kurt Vile–but those shows were cancelled for COVID, so I don’t know what she gets up to most of the time. But she is terrific.

I really like Courtney’s bassist Bones.  Back in 2016 I wrote “I have this kind of bet with myself to see if I can get a good picture of Bones.  This is the third time I’ve seen him play and I just can’t ever seem to get a decent picture of him.  Mostly that’s because I’m usually on the left side and he’s on the right.  But he seems to be always darkly lit and  hidden behind hair and a hat.”  Tonight was no exception, I could not get a decent picture of him–but he sounded great.

The backdrop was pretty simple, although from time to time it changed to show the (rather unusual) album cover of the praying mantis.  She played eight (of ten) songs from the new album, but she played enough of the older stuff to scratch all of our itches.  I loved hearing the comparatively mellow Depreston, but she jolted things back up with a rocking Elevator Operator.

She only played one song (Before You Gotta Go)  from Things Take Time, Take Time, an album that I don’t really know that well–and a tour that we missed completely.  Indeed, Courtney was quick to address her lack of Philly shows.  We were supposed to see her back in Feb of 2022 at The Met, but she got COVID like the day of.  And then later that summer she schedule a new show at the Highland stage at the Mann–a great place to see someone.  It was her and Lucy Dacus!  And just before Lucy was supposed to go on, there was a massive thunder storm.  We stayed at the venue for hours to wait it out until the eventually cancelled.

She told us that both times, her dear friend Kurt Vile was hanging around ready to play a song with her.  So thankfully, he was there tonight–the crowd going nuts of course.  They played a wonderful rendition of Over Everything from their joint album.  Both Kurt and Courtney took extended solos–what a great set ender.

After the encore break, Courtney came out for a solo version of the new song Mostly Patient.  The band came back out and the ripped through a kicking version of Pedestrian at Best.

We tried to guess what else she might play.  She left out some of her really rocking songs like Nameless, Faceless; however, she ended with a great single from 2018 Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party, a song that really lets her jam out–which she did.

Overall it was a great show.  The audience irritated to be sure and I’d really love to see her in a smaller place again.  But if you ‘re away for 8 years, people will miss you.  I still don’t really understand who her fan base is.  But we enjoyed her once again.

λ Creature of Habit (2026) [played all but Same and Another Beautiful Day]
Ψ Things Take Time, Take Time (2021)
§ single (2018)
¥ Tell Me How You Really Feel (2018)
$ Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)
⊗ How to Carve a Carrot Into a Rose (2013)
Œ I’ve Got a Friend Called Emily Ferris (2012)

Kurt Vile albums
⇓ b’lieve i’m goin down… (2015)
∞ Smoke Ring for My Halo (2011)

Kurt & Courtney
Lotta Sea Lice (2017)