It’s Sunday night and I’m settling down for a peaceful sleep, giddy for the next days jaunt up north, to the sanctuary of the Calder Valley, in Hebden Bridge no less. There’s something about that place. Light arrives late and leaves early, it’s like a storybook, a place that’s been grown rather than built.
Two blinks and I’m asleep and then bang! Every piece of wooden shelter in my back garden has just collapsed in the absolute chaos of the wind and rain currently battering Lincolnshire, three hours later, five blisters, a back that looks like I’ve been wrestling with catzilla from mouse hunt, drenched and cold, I’m back in the dream state of tomorrow’s very special show in Hebden with Courtney Barnett..
It’s still quite wild to think that the Grammy nominated, superstar in her own right would be entertaining a crowd of two hundred people this evening, it’s truly a testament to her giving personality that she would treat her fans to a once in a lifetime experience such as this, Courtney Barnett is a genuine outlier that places people before persona and I love her for that.
As I approach The Trades Club, there’s all manner of different types of people entering, highlighting the diverse audiences that Barnett attracts and we all queue like sardines in the narrow corridor waiting to be ticked off and let in. The Trades Club is another great example of this glorious market towns pull, community led and bursting with character, it never fails to make you feel like you’re in a special place.
At full capacity way before the 8pm kick off, there’s a magnificent nervous yet exciting energy floating around the room, then suddenly Barnett and her band walk on stage, it almost doesn’t feel real and before there’s any opportunity to process the fact that a genuine, bona fide superstar is standing six foot from you, any kind of gap between celebrity and fan is quashed with her shy and humble introduction.
Opening with “Stay In Your Lane” that sets a tone of quiet intent, before moving through the observational sharpness of “Avant Gardener”, and in this intimate venue it feels almost spoken into the crowd rather than performed, her storytelling feels almost uncomfortably close in a room this size. “Mantis” is received very well from her new record ‘Creature Of Habit’, a song that is up there with anything that she’s ever written.
“Small Poppies” introduces repetition and drift, hypnotic rather than immediate. Then “Depreston” lands as a real emotional anchor of the night and then she throws in a Wings cover like only she can with “Let Me Roll it”. We are in absolute awe of this performance, already being written as one of the best nights of our lives.
At the conclusion of every song, she thanks the audience and she really means it, I think it’s the most happiest I’ve ever seen an artist be on stage. It’s a real love in.
Now we’re into the final stretch and this is where it stops being a setlist and turns into something closer to a slow-burning confession with “Sugar Plum”, “One Thing At A Time” and “Before You Gotta Go”, it all feels personal in a way that’s almost uncomfortable, like overhearing something you weren’t meant to, Barnett never hands you the moment, you have to meet it halfway.
“Write a List of Things to Look Forward To” drifts in quietly, under the radar, honest. Its softness carries further than anything louder. You feel it more than you hear it. There’s a tension running through “Mostly Patient” but it never quite breaks, “Pedestrian at Best” is the closest things get to snapping, but it never turns chaotic, sang purposefully at a slower pace than the record, it again adds to that unique experience that we’re all soaking up and finishing with “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party”, from her breakthrough album ‘Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit’. A perfect end to a truly amazing set.
We got to hear so many songs from her new record, ‘Creature Of Habit’ tonight and it’s been on repeat since release, it’s an absolute beauty and stands up to anything she’s released. So go check it out. Okay?
You can get it here.
This was by far one of the best gig I’ve ever been to, so so special and should set a precedent for touring bands to work in these small cap shows, rather than constantly playing to soulless venues without any real connection to their fans. If Courtney Barnett can do it, why can’t you?
