HYPE can be a dangerous machine.
Many popular artists on a variety of artistic spectrums have arrived in the music-buying public's consciousness in the midst of a shroud of hype and duly wound up being superceded by it. Perhaps this thinking is why its quite amusing that highly rated Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett has had a swell in fanbase numbers with a tune that literally deadpan squwks "Put me on a pedestal and I'll only disappoint you/Tell me I'm exceptional and I promise I'll exploit you".
Barnett has certainly seen growth in fans outside the scene of the Melbourne scene in a short space of time, with the Australian singer's earlier track Avant Gardener becoming something of a sleeper hit in 2013. The track showed off an impressively dark comic and deadpan-delivered recount of suffering a panic attack and being taken to hospital while gardening in an Aussie summer, accompanied by a nicely constructed folky-but-heavy riff and a tennis match turned brawl for a music video. Her debut album then landed top 20 spots in both the UK and the USA earlier this year, as well as a top 5 spot in the Aussie charts.
The final night of her largest ever UK tour is then something celebratory, with the whole thing wrapping up with a sold out pair of nights at the Electric Ballroom. There's certainly confidence on show, with Barnett and her backing duo on bass and drums strolling onto the stage and bashing straight into the jangly Elevator Operator.
The clarity in sound is impressive, which each little flick of wrist on the guitars sounding huge in the club, while thundering bass riffs from a player "who just learned today" help underpin everything nicely. The songs may sound similar in places, but the riffs are all fun and satisfying, and keep up a buoyant crowd's spirits very nicely.
This even has the curious effect of beefing up the less massive tracks. The folksy Depreston is given an unusually hefty feeling in places, although it maintains its light touch charm and its impressive re-collections of disquiet with gentrification, house-hunting and tearing down people's memories for 500 thousand Australian dollars. It also has a big sing-a-long, with Barnett deferring to the crowd to let them sing over the final guitar chords.
Some of Barnett's material does take lyrics of deeper sources. The peppy Dead Fox is a track that takes up reference to Australia's shark culls, roadkill, giant trucks, CO2 emissions and organic vegetables, and presents it with an interesting stream of consciousness bewilderment at the way things are progressing. Full marks too for lines like "possum Jackson Pollock painted on the tar".
Appearing early is Barnett's earliest song in the form of Canned Tomatoes (Whole), which is an impressive yarn using everyday activities to cover up the feelings of loss.
For the most part, there is a celebratory air to proceedings not dwelling on such concerns, and things take a further air when opening act Fraser A. Gorman is bought back on stage for a run-through of his song Book of Love with Barnett and her band.
This is also during a show which makes the most of the unusual stage-show, with a white perspex screen wrapping the stage. This is impressively illuminated by a hidden lighting rig and a massive bright light button. Although less impressive are the moments when an old school projector is turned on, leaving parts of the set lit up by a backdrop of its loading screen.
The appearance of Gorman then cascades into the strongest portion of the show. Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go To The Party appears, armed with a punchy yet simple chorus of "I wanna go out but I wanna stay home", and a firmly direct riff that gets people bopping.
Following this up is the aforementioned Avant Gardener, which sounds much heftier than on record and is accompanied by bouncy singalongs. The mood also remains for History Eraser, which is tied over well.
Ending the main set is Pedestrian at Best, replete with its hype reluctant chorus and grungey riff set. Even though Barnett intentionally buries and even mumbles the vocal, there are a lot of people attempted to keep up with the 1000mph-an-hour words in the verses.
After that, the encore comes and takes up a build up pattern. First, Barnett serenades us solo with a cover of the Lemonheads' Being Around, then is joined by the drummer for recent track Pickles From a Jar, and then finally the bass player for the closing number, which ends almost amusingly with a single guitar squawk rather than the big epic climax most gigs strive for.
In any case, those in the Camden club have certainly been welcome to an excellent evening's entertainment. Barnett, meanwhile, may now be followed with a cloud of hype, but it comes with good reason for someone that has provided some impressive material. What the next step is will be anyone's guess, but its highly likely future visits to London may well find themselves in bigger rooms.
4/5
Barnett's appearance was preceded by two support acts. The first to appear was Fraser Gorman, who was solo on acoustic guitar. He was also engaged in heavy duty banter with the crowd, introducing himself as "looking like Leo Sayer while dressing like Bob Dylan", and singing the ironic praises of the United Kingdom. When he wasn't doing that, he was playing some nice if sparse tunes, but he will be back in the summer with a band and could be a very good watch for those who attend.
Manchester four piece Spring King were the sandwich in-between. They provided a lively set but somewhat neutered by poor acoustic management, with one of the two guitars absent. Nevertheless singing drummer Tarek Musa was an engaging presence, while the band's Josh Widdicombe look-a-like on guitar was an equally nice player. But the band's star man was its bass guitarist, who provided an almost lead-like performance on his instrument, even if pedal problems caused some between-song delays.
