Darren Hanlon - This affable Aussie kicked off the evening with a fine solo
acoustic set. His songs present fully considered scenarios and musings,
which often take a circuitous route to fruition. One tune’s introduction
featured fond remembrances of a fistfight that occurred in his hometown
one Christmas Eve, then segued into a lament over the lack of good
Mexican food down under. Hanlon’s songs rise or fall on the strength of
his wordplay. His love of a memorable turn of phrase leads to lyrics
that vacillate between clever and questionable, as demonstrated by two
tracks he performed off his 2002 LP Hello Stranger, “Punk’s Not
Dead” (she’s “just gone to bed”) and “Don’t Cheat the Future” (as
“you’re just cheating yourself”). At his best, Hanlon gives sagacious
advice on religion (warning us not to “underestimate the fitness of a
determined Jehovah’s witness”) and aging, proclaiming that, while hair
turns gray and skin turns to leather, “the best thing about growing old
is we all do it together.”
Chastity Belt - The individual notches of Chastity Belt complement each other
well throughout their mid-tempo rock songs. Guitarist Lydia Lund stands
out due to her high-register playing in the verses. Annie Truscott’s
bass-playing provides an added dimension to “On the Floor”, while
Gretchen Grimm’s stick work (switching between a tom-heavy arrangement
and a breezier ride-cymbal beat) propels “IDC”. That song features
singer Julia Shapiro’s best moment, as she answers the question “Is it
cool not to care?” by shrugging “I don’t really care.” Although Shapiro
channels her frustrations into lyrics like “I’m never satisfied” and “I
never expect much from anyone”, she gives the impression that negative
people and experiences don’t wear on her much anymore. When she
dismisses a former acquaintance as “just another man tryin’ to teach me
something”, it’s clear she’s left the offending cad far behind. Chastity
Belt also gets credit for Shapiro and Truscott playing the set in their
socks, as well as posting one of the best band profile pics on all of
Facebook (as seen on the link above).
Courtney Barnett - The innately likable Barnett was tremendous in her headline
role. Her three-piece band switches seamlessly from lightly accompanying
her meandering inner dialogues to co-navigating her surprisingly heavy
breakdowns. Barnett displayed significant instrumental chops on the
bluesy “An Illustration of Loneliness (Sleepless in New York)” as well
as her purest pop shot, “Dead Fox”. Her songwriting narrates tales of
Christmas medical emergencies in “Avant Gardener” and the “Depreston”
experience of “getting older and dying, but also looking for a new house
in a shitty suburb.” Despite projecting an image of collected cool,
Barnett warns listeners repeatedly against placing too much hope on her
shoulders. “Pedestrian at Best” explicitly details the perils of putting
her on a pedestal, while “Kim’s Caravan” actively seeks to deflect such
emotional investment (“I am just a reflection of what you really want
to see / so take what you want from me”). The sold-out crowd remained
adoring throughout her set, however, an easy feat when cheering a
performer whose least awkward stage rap involves asking “Is everyone ok?
You guys ok?” An incredibly strong performance that ranks with the best
9:30 shows in recent memory.
Esoterica
- Hanlon reminisced about a past 9:30 performance supporting Billy
Bragg. He said the club provided him a complementary meal, noting that,
after five years of getting drinks on the house at other venues, free
food really sticks out in your memory … He also likened the girls
dancing on the venue’s side-stage balcony to stalwart Muppets critics
Statler and Waldorf, a comparison some musician was bound to make
eventually … Between songs, Barnett exposed the differences between
American and Australian English. She mistranslated the 40 degrees
Celsius temperature in her home country as being equivalent to 150
million degrees Fahrenheit here in the states. Later, she estimated the
cost of an onstage item at “two dollars fifty”.
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