Opening act Warm Currency struggled to hold the attention of a restless Sydney Festival crowd at the City Recital Hall. Despite strong applause at the end of their set, the two piece act’s minimalist soundscapes and spoken word combo played to an audience that seemed impatient for the drawcard: not one, but two sets from Courtney Barnett. Each set in turn encompassing her now-familiar wry, observational songwriting, loved by fans since her 2015 LP debut, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit; and cuts from the instrumental album End of the Day, comprising the score to the 2021 documentary Anonymous Club (Danny Cohen’s anti-rock-doco about Barnett’s rise to fame).
The irony is that Warm Currency proved an inspired intro to Barnett’s low-key vox-free noodlings, accompanied by Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint. But the uptick in energy was palpable when Barnett launched into her second set, exhorting the crowd “Don’t be afraid to make noise!” and hitting us with her repertoire of certified bangers, including suburban anthem ‘Avant Gardener’ and relationship requiem ‘Need a Little Time’.
As a singer-songwriter, Courtney Barnett is simply one of the best we’ve got, and the standing ovation that closed the show was well-earned. Still, as Barnett moves into musical spaces outside of what we’ve become accustomed to, she may be facing an age-old problem in pop. To paraphrase another iconic Australian outfit, the fans seem to like her old stuff better than her new stuff.
'Switched On: Courtney Barnett’s End of the Day' played for one night only at the City Recital Hall, Angel Place, for Sydney Festival on January 20, 2024. Find out more here.
