Barns Courtney Ignites the Fine Line

I saw Barns Courtney for the first time last fall when he opened for The Wombats at the Fine Line. Last night, he headlined to an almost sold-out room. I remember being impressed with his opening set last year, so I was highly anticipating seeing him again a year later at the same venue, but this time in the capacity of headlining a packed show. He exceeded my expectations with cool stage visuals and lights combined with high energy all night long.

Barns Courtney came out on stage in a red leather jacket branded with tons of patches and nothing underneath except a necklace, representing the edgy vibe of his music. He looked like a rockstar and strutted around the stage confidently, whipping his curly hair around. The crowd was mostly older; I didn’t see any hands with X’s. Despite being older, the crowd was really into it, dancing and clapping along.

During “Golden Dandelions,” Barns Courtney got the crowd jumping from the front of the venue to the back by yelling, “When I say jump, what do you do? Jump!” This wasn’t the only crowd interaction of the night. During the last song before the encore, “Fire,” Barns Courtney instructed everyone to get low. He then hopped off the stage into the crowd and danced around amongst fans.

Barns Courtney oozes charisma and has great stage presence. It’s hard to take your eyes off of him. At one point toward the end of the show, he held the mic cord between his teeth and clapped along with the audience. Barns Courtney has so much passion for what he does and it is evident when he performs. He puts so much into his performance, he works up quite the sweat. Like seriously, I’ve never seen a musician get so sweaty at a show.

Barns Courtney is gaining popularity fast, make sure you’re following him before he blows up and check out his new album, 404, out this Friday!

Setlist

1. Fun Never Ends
2. London Girls
3. Hands
4. Hobo Rocket
5. Never Let You Down
6. Champion
7. Hard to Be Alone
8. Hellfire
9. Glitter & Gold
10. Hollow
11. You and I
12. Golden Dandelions
13. Kicks
14. Fire
15. “99”