Courtney Barnett and Company Rip It Up at the Ryman

Expectations can be funny things, and I try to leave them at home. Sometimes they hitch a ride anyway, like they did to a rainy Tuesday night show at the Ryman with Australian songwriter Courtney Barnett and Los Angeles-residing opener Truman Sinclair. Before the show — my first time seeing Barnett — I refreshed myself on her first two LPs as well as Sinclair’s new EP Rivers of Sugar and Blood. But I was not prepared for early-20-something Sinclair to begin his set with a sad ballad about a coal miner or bust out a harmonica in his folk-Americana tunes. Nor was I prepared for the absolutely scorching performance that Barnett threw down, befitting the songs from her latest LP Creature of Habit. 

Sinclair and his band — including electric guitar, bass and drums along with his acoustic guitar — played a half-hour set of short songs, and he earnestly thanked the then-sparse crowd for coming early to hear him. Lit only by spotlights, Sinclair and company performed plaintive tunes, and the acoustic-guitar-and-harmonica setup seemed deceptively simple. But the songsmith showed he can also easily switch over to electric guitar for a blistering solo.

Sinclair sang a few songs from the new EP, including the song “Dust to Dust,” but also included several from his full-length American Recordings, notably “Joel Roberts,” “Bloodline” and his ode to rock ’n’ roll, “Sit by My Fire.” He also sprinkled in a few songs from his earlier EP Pale Moon Pale Horse, including “Pale Horse” and “Stuck.” He ended his set entreating the growing audience to dance in the Ryman’s pews to a song that he’s teased will be on a forthcoming album about dancing all day and night. If you put equal measures of The Wallflowers, Modest Mouse, John Mellencamp and Paul Westerberg in a blender, the result might be a smoothie base for what you’ll hear when you listen to Sinclair. 

Courtney Barnett and her band walked onstage to a Lou Reed song and proceeded to rock the Ryman. That was literally at times, since Zach Dawes’ bass seemed a bit overly loud and shook the building along with the powerful drumming of Stella Mozgawa (whose other projects include independent production work, including co-producing Creature of Habit with Barnett, and playing drums in indie-rock outfit Warpaint). Barnett didn’t have a lot to say to the crowd between songs, seemingly intent on pushing through the hour-and-a-half set, but that is not a complaint. The audience was treated to almost the entirety of the new album, signaled by the projection of the album’s cover image of a huge praying mantis behind the band. Barnett played “Site Unseen” (whose album version features Waxahatchee) and “Wonder” (which reminds me a bit of The Cure’s “In Between Days”), as well as “Sugar Plum,” “Great Advice,” “Same” and “One Thing at a Time.” 

Barnett didn’t neglect her back catalog either. She ruefully noted that “Avant Gardener” was “from her first EP 12 years ago,” and the crowd was wild-ish when she played “Elevator Operator” and the masterful “Depreston.” Listening to her records didn’t prepare me for Barnett’s live show or how good a guitarist the Aussie southpaw is — she can and does shred powerfully and often (and here seemed to favor a Fender Jaguar with dual humbuckers). When I checked out what others have to say about Barnett, most of the online clippings I ran across mention her deadpan vocal delivery and clever, insightful lyrics — but less about her musical chops. I can understand why her clever songwriting appeals to the indie-rock crowd and made her a critically acclaimed artist. She’s also a terrific musician, and she rocks hard. Barnett doesn’t sound like anyone else I can think of, but I can think of a few artists (including some locals) who take cues from her. 

After the main set, she came back out alone with her electric guitar to start the three-song encore with “Mostly Patient.” The band then joined in and raged through fan favorites “Pedestrian at Best” and “Nobody Really Cares if You Don’t Go to the Party.” One might not expect that Sinclair and Barnett would make a good pairing, but a common thread tied the show together: the power of music in general and rock in particular, and the benefits of sharing that power with others. On rainy nights and uncertain days, we need that more than ever.