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Photo credit: Blaine Schultz
Courtney Barnett onstage performing at the Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard on Thursday, July 4, 2019.
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Photo credit: Blaine Schultz
Brett Newski onstage performing at the Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard on Thursday, July 4, 2019.
Brett Newski’s power-folk music has taken him around the world, yet he gladly calls Milwaukee home. Thursday, Newski and his band No Tomorrow (actually only drummer Spatola) warmed up Summerfest’s Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard for headliner Courtney Barnett.
The prolific world troubadour ventured into the audience, blasting his acoustic guitar through a small amp and even invited a young woman onstage to perform an impromptu kazoo solo during a song about the worst gig he ever played.
Newski covered hometown heroes the Violent Femmes as well as Beck’s “Devil’s Haircut,” the first song he ever heard on CD, courtesy of his dad’s Columbia House Record Club.
His most poignant tune recalled a trip to Australia to visit his girlfriend who broke up with him on the spot. The upside was venturing into a Melbourne club and meeting Courtney Barnett who was playing her first gig that night.
Following Barnett’s Summerfest performance, an astute listener suggested, “This is what Nirvana would sound like had they existed in 2019 and their front man was a woman from Australia.” A southpaw like Kurt Cobain, she also favors offset body Fender guitars. The loud/soft dynamics recall the Seattle grunge kings, but lyrically Barnett’s impressive command of language nods to vintage Bob Dylan.
Propelled by a great sound mix, Barnett and her band (bass and drums) delivered on a promise of “a lot of songs that will be loud, quiet, happy and angry.” Her contagious energy never flagged in the 80-degree temperatures.
Just when Barnett’s almost blasé stream-of-dialog lyrics suggested a weariness beyond her years she sagely switched gears, often employing big pop hooks and singalong choruses, deftly tap-dancing between distorted and clean guitar tones. In “Are You Looking After Yourself?” she sang, “I don’t want no 9 to 5 / telling me that I’m alive” before slamming a drumstick on her guitar strings.
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Like Newski, Barnett moved from songs of self-deprecation to self-empowerment. Toward the end of her performance she asked the audience, “Does everyone feel safe? Look after each other.” Not exactly the cliched rock and roll banter we have come to expect. Sometimes change is welcome.
Decades ago a writer made a an oft quoted comment about seeing the future of rock and roll. For some, seeing Barnett tonight might very well be that moment.
