Courtney Barnett
White Oak Music Hall
May 2, 2026
It’s kind of a hacky thing to say a musician “defies categorization,” but no one ever accused me of originality. More importantly, that description legitimately applies to Courtney Barnett.
Barnett is first and foremost a singer-songwriter, having earned numerous awards in her native Australia as well as a 2016 Grammy nomination for Best New Artist (she lost to Meghan Trainor, which … yeah). “Indie” is probably the label most applied to Barnett, who released her first three albums on her own Milk! Records label. But don’t discount the “dolewave” tag, applied to Australasian acts with a DIY ethic and an “aggressively depressed” sound.
Barnett’s latest release is Creature of Habit, which solidifies her rock bona fides and anchored the set list of her show at White Oak Music Hall. She opened with “Stay In Your Lane,” a straight ahead rocker that bled into “City Looks Pretty” from the pre-COVID Tell Me How You Really Feel. It was apparent early on that Barnett was eschewing the experimental sounds of releases like End of the Day.
Except for “Anonymous Club,” which she mentioned they haven’t played in “quite a while” (2019, to be exact).
Another new cut, “Mantis,” may have been one of the most accessible early efforts. Mostly thanks to lines like:
I got my head sorted sort of
I keep going just because, yeah just because
That’s pretty universal, and helps keep the genre avoidant Barnett from getting pigeonholed.
She also reminds me a little of James McMurtry. Not in the misanthropic sense, but in that Barnett — like McMurtry — is kind of a secret badass on guitar. You may not include that in your mental catalog when it comes to her music, but it’s undeniable when listening to the likes of “Turning Green” or the new “Site Unseen,” which she recorded with Waxahatchee.
“I’m Not Your Mother, I’m Not Your Bitch” sounded likes something Nirvana might have recorded, in a good way, and absolutely benefited from the power trio approach.
Apropos of nothing, Barnett also did an episode of MTV Unplugged. Granted, it was recorded in Melbourne for the Aussie version of the channel, which is preferable to our domestic iteration that only plays 22 hour marathons of Ridiculousness.
Barnett kept the stage banter to a minimum, asking the White Oak downstairs crowd if they were okay (they were). Letting the music do the talking would seem to be another one of those cop-outs, but the plaintive pleas of songs like “Write a List of Things to Look Forward To” reminds us to “keep trying,” even if we don’t always know why.
It’s not entirely fair to call them “fatalistic,” but Barnett’s songs have an almost desperate optimism. You heard it in the plaintive “Before You Gotta Go,” a song about making sure the last words you exchange with a loved one aren’t bitter. Because you don’t know if they might be the last they ever hear.
The trend continued with the encore. It kicked off with Barnett solo on guitar for “Mostly Patient.” In it, she quietly commiserated with all those “aching for a brighter day.”
She closed out with (arguably) her two biggest hits, “Pedestrian at Best” and “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party.” The last one a driving rocker that had the entire audience echoing the chorus, “I wanna go out but I wanna stay home.” Speaking for myself (and, I suspect, the majority of the crowd), I’m glad I opted for the former. Even if I usually feel like the latter.
How Was The Opener? Rather earnest. But in a good way! California-based Truman Sinclair has been recording songs since he was a kid. He pivoted from emo and metal to folk during the pandemic, and there’s a lot of Jayhawks DNA there (I actually thought his first tune was a Golden Smog cover). He also referred to Barnett as “sick,” which was one of at least three times I clocked the reference.
Personal Bias: Would’ve liked to hear her cover of Chastity Belt’s “Different Now,” but I’ll live.
The Crowd: Enthusiastic and ranging from teens to oldsters like myself.
Overheard In The Crowd: “I thought you said she was from Austria.”
Random Notebook Dump: “I bet most of these people don’t even know who Yahoo Serious was.”
SET LIST
Stay In Your Lane
City Looks Pretty
Avant Gardener
Small Poppies
Mantis
Site Unseen
Same
I’m Not Your Mother, I’m Not Your Bitch
Turning Green
Anonymous Club
Depreston
Great Advice
Elevator Operator
Sugar Plum
Wonder
Before You Gotta Go
Write a List of Things to Look Forward To
One Thing at a Time
ENCORE
Mostly Patient
Pedestrian at Best
Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party
