Courtney Barnett Live at The Roxy

So I'm going to start this post with a bit of a rant. I know that it is considered de-rigour here in La-La Land to only bother to catch the support act so that you can grab a prime spot in the Mosh, but those of us who do make the effort to get there early and catch all the bands on the bill - and I've lost count of the great opening acts that I've seen through the years (including a certain U2, wonder what happened to them?) - we are there to hear them, not your inane chatter. It's not particularly clever and you're just being down-right rude. I had to go through the same experience when I saw Angel Olsen at the Echoplex with the half the crowd there not because they desperately wanted to see her, more they wanted to say they'd seen her...

So that being said, Saturday evening saw the first of two sell-out shows by Australian wordsmith - the wonderful - Courtney Barnett, at one of Sunset's great iconic venues, The Roxy, and a show that featured an incredibly eclectic bill that offered the home-spun philosophy and urban-folk of Darren Hanlon, the incredibly addictive guitar-fuelled post-punk of Chastity Belt and of course, the  wryly observational and rock-fired poetry of Courtney herself...

First up was Aussie singer-songwriter Darren Hanlon, who according to his wiki page has been making music for since the turn of the century (my excuse - Australia is a long-long-way away), and whose disarming Australian-brogue would melt the heart of even the coldest ice-warrior. Opening with the line "All these songs are based on true stories", he proceeded to entertain us - or at least those of us who were prepared to listen - with some smart contemporary urban-folk and tales of love, life, being a punk-rocker in Sydney and a 'Mad-Max' Carmaggedon of a Megabus journey across the out-back. His introverted tales of life's intimate moments reminded me at times of Billy Bragg at his most introspective. There's also a great put-down for the disinterested in the front; "God you lot are loud, but I'll be finished soon..." Me? I'm off to check out his albums...

Chastity Belt

Next-up are the Washington State four-piece Chastity Belt - and a band that I've heard of but of whom until now I'd never heard (and yes, I know they're signed to Hardly Art and their albums are available via Bandcamp - but Washington State is far, far away there's just too much great music for one guy to listen and write about...)  

But after last night this is what I know. The band make the most arresting and melodic post-punk sound behind the distinctively piercing vocals of  Julie Shapiro. As my wife remarked, guitarist Lydia Lund looks about the same age as our god-daughter while for a pint-size, drummer Gretchen Grimm sure can hammer the crap out of the drums and who alongside bassist Annie Truscott, sets a solid back-line.  

Take note, these girls can more than craft a half-decent tune and are well worth catching live. They're touring the UK in October where they'll go down a storm. I'm off to increase my ever-growing Bandcamp catalogue and make a note to catch them when they're next in LA.

Finally the night's headliner, Courtney Barnett, or more accurately the CB3 - which where I come from is better known a post-code - Courtney and her erstwhile touring band of longtime sidekicks, drummer Dave Mudie and Bones Sloane on bass, hit the stage. I'd mentioned after her gig last year at the BootlegTheater, that I was awestruck by the intensity of her live performance of the "Double EP...", and as her debut album "Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit" has ably demonstrated, she has effortlessly married her inner rock demon to her keenly observed word-smithery, and it was this attitude and ferocity that fuelled the night's electrifying set.

The set kicked-off with full-on, riff-chugging, version of the album's opener "Elevator operator" before the humorous "Lance, Jr" - which opens with one of the great eye-popping opening lines; "I masturbated to the songs you wrote... before quickly jumping to the most ultimate of put-downs, "Doesn’t mean I like you man, It just helps me get to sleep, And it’s cheaper than Temazepam."

The CB3

So one of the great things about a CB3 show is the way that the songs are given a fresh-twist when she performs them live. There's Courtney's sop to the love song - the tale of jet-lagging disorientation that is "An illustration of loneliness (sleepless in New York)" - which here gets the most amazing of crashing and tumbling guitar middle-eights; "Small poppies" gets a distinctively blues feel with Courtney giving it a lung-busting refrain at the end. Even the sublime "Avant gardener" gets amped.

But it's not just 'volume turned all the way up to eleven'. "Depreston" - which for all the great songs on the album (including the thought provoking "Dead foxes" - to which the intro gets most definitely blown tonight) has something about it that just resonates with me. What starts off as a satirical view of the 'burbs and a nondescript rundown estate sale, is turned on its head by the realisation that this was once someone's home and life... It's an incredibly moving performance, amplified by the crowd singing along to the chorus.

And then's there's the sublime and psychedelic "Kim's caravan" - even the long suffering Mrs Blog, who often accompanies me to gigs through gritted teeth, is moved to remark what a great song this - before the set ends with a fantastically faithful cover of the Breeders' "Cannonball" and a rousing version of "Pedestrian at best".

There's obviously(?) an encore in the wings, to which Courtney regales with a solo rendition of The Lemonheads' "Being around" (a song she also played last year at the Bootleg), before being joined by Dave for "Pickles from the jar". With the full-blown ensemble on stage, Courtney thanks us coming to see her (no, actually, thank you for playing such an intimate venue - in 20 years time you'll be playing here à la U2 in-between stadium gigs) before launching into a riotous version of "History eraser" which results in Courtney totalling trashing Dave's drum kit.

Told you she had an inner rock demon just waiting to burst-out...