[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). (more…)
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