By the time Courtney Barnett took the stage on Sunday night to end her three-night NXNE residency at the Silver Dollar Room, the buzz surrounding the Melbourne singer/songwriter was becoming deafening, the result of both her well-received 2013 collection The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas and two previous sets in front of capacity crowds over the weekend.
She didn't disappoint. Opening with the rollicking "David," Barnett and her two bandmates careened through a 45-minute set of her trademark deadpan ramblings that included plenty of post-Brian Jonestown Massacre drowsy psychedelia, scuzzy Telecaster rave-ups and countless great lines (two favourites: "The paramedic thinks I'm clever 'cause I play guitar/ I think she's clever 'cause she stops people dying" from "Avant Gardener," and "I guarantee we'll have more fun/ Drink till the moon becomes the sun/ And in the taxi home/ I'll sing you a Triffids song!" from the closing Dylanesque fever dream "History Eraser"). They don't give out the title of Queen of NXNE, but if they did, Barnett would've won it in a landslide.
She didn't disappoint. Opening with the rollicking "David," Barnett and her two bandmates careened through a 45-minute set of her trademark deadpan ramblings that included plenty of post-Brian Jonestown Massacre drowsy psychedelia, scuzzy Telecaster rave-ups and countless great lines (two favourites: "The paramedic thinks I'm clever 'cause I play guitar/ I think she's clever 'cause she stops people dying" from "Avant Gardener," and "I guarantee we'll have more fun/ Drink till the moon becomes the sun/ And in the taxi home/ I'll sing you a Triffids song!" from the closing Dylanesque fever dream "History Eraser"). They don't give out the title of Queen of NXNE, but if they did, Barnett would've won it in a landslide.
