Courtney Barnett Tickets

When Courtney Barnett’s first double EP started topping Best Of lists in 2013, music journalists quickly tripped over each other trying to claim the discovery for themselves. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, Barnett’s wry mix of sunny garage grunge and deadpan twee pop felt like something new, something big, something exciting. 

In fact, by 2013 Barnett had been making music for years in her native Australia and was a regular on the Melbourne indie scene since 2010. Born in Sydney, raised in Hobart, she worked as a pizza delivery driver whilst playing second guitar in Rapid Transit, forming her own band (The Olivettes) and distributing early recordings on hand-numbered cassettes. 

Joining psyche country band Immigrant Union on slide guitar, Barnett met Brent DeBoer (formerly of The Dandy Warhols) and convinced him to play drums on her first EP, I’ve Got A Friend Called Emily Ferris. Setting up her own label, Milk Records!, Barnett followed up her debut with a second EP, How to Carve a Carrot Into a Rose, which was packaged up with her first to make The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas.

Now backed by Marathon Artists, Barnett suddenly caught the attention of the rest of the world. Within months of her double EP reaching America she was being championed by the likes of Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and Stereogum – with lead singles Avant Gardener and History Eraser showcasing the best of Barnett’s smart conversational writing and scuzzy psychedelic indie rock. 

Naturally, a debut album followed. 2015’s Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit won Barnett four ARIA Music awards, a Grammy nomination and guest spots on SNL and Jimmy Fallon. Led by the acclaimed singles Pedestrian At Best and Depreston, the album cued up a massive world tour and gave Barnett the freedom to whatever she wanted next. 

As it turned out, all she wanted to do was to play music with people she admired. Forming an overnight super-group with Kurt Vile, Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney), Rob Laakso (The Violators, Swirlies), Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint) and Katie Harkin (Wild Beasts), Barnett released Lotta Sea Lice as a collaboration with Vile in 2017. 

Returning to her solo career the following year, Tell Me How You Really Feel launched with the singles Nameless, Faceless, Need A Little Time, City Looks Pretty, and Sunday Roast. Barbing her lyrics (taking on internet trolls, misogyny and self-obsession), Barnett leaned into the stoner vibe of her work with Vile to craft a spiky record with a softer edge – honing her introvert anthems into something more casually confident. 

In summer 2021, Barnett staggered the release of three new singles for her upcoming third studio album, Things Take Time, Take Time, with Mozgawa returning as producer.