Courtney Barnett
Metropolis, Montreal
May 29, 2016
I've heard some people say that Courtney Barnett might be bringing Grunge back, is she? She might be the new voice of grunge, she definitely has the look with her loose shirt, jeans and semi long hair. She has a unique. recognizable, low and nasal voice. Her songs can create a small raucous if played at the right time. She lacks the craziness of Cobain or even Cage the Elephant's singer while performing on stage, but she has a good charisma. Can her songs inspire a whole generation? She seems to have this "I don't care what you think of me" which was Cobain's motto. Her songs structures don't seem to be Grunge like to me, but she definitely has something since i was hooked the first time i listened to her latest album. My answer would be that she could probably voice some of Nirvana's songs if they asked her like St-Vincent did, but i don't think she is that close to the phenomenon, so let's recap this show.
While we were waiting for Courtney Barnett to show up, the second to last background song before she appeared on stage started to play at an intensely loud level and it was Smell Like Teen Spirit...it seemed to instill a lot of energy from the crowd as most started to hum and dance to the song almost starting a mini trash and finished with some applause so it was a great idea to warm up the crowd and a good presage for the rest of the show.
The show started strongly with "Dead fox" with a good reaction from the crowd. All her songs had a good reaction from the crowd who seemed ready for something to happen, from a cue to start a reaction. This cue wouldn't come from Courtney's interaction with the public, but from an alternate version of Small Poppies which ignited the crowd at key point in the song and that was great. Unfortunately, the songs that followed lacked the same intensity so the momentum was lost and that was a shame since something was happening. After a few "thanks", cool videos in the background and some slow songs, then came "Pedestrian at Best" which fueled the crowd. After this song, the intensity went down again, but at the end Courtney played a cool solo while on her knees and it was appreciated.
For the encore, Courtney appeared alone on stage and talked to the crowd for the first time and explained that she had a great time and that the show was a great moment for her. They played 3 songs. The first one was a song played as a solo performer, but it didn't do much to showcase her talent, the second song was pretty fun and included everyone and the last one really ended the show on a good note and was a major hit with "Nobody really Cares...".
The show was good, the voice was great, unfortunately she never really engaged with the public, didn't really shine with her showmanship, but nevertheless i still had a good time.
