Courtney Barnett has returned to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, making her sixth appearance on the show to play recent single ‘Rae Street’ alongside her backing band, the CB3.
Performing remotely in a dimly lit living room setup, Barnett and co. keep faithful to the slow-burning track, with the studio mix’s synthesised percussion and stacked vocal harmonies intact. Barnett herself locks into its breezy, lowkey energy, bobbing to the beat as she strums away at her Fender Jaguar.
Take a look at the performance below:
In previous years’ appearances on Fallon, Barnett has performed tracks such as ‘Sunday Roast’, ‘Avant Gardener’ and a cover of The Grateful Dead’s ‘New Speedway Boogie’.
‘Rae Street’ was released last month as the lead single from Barnett’s forthcoming third album, ‘Things Take Time, Take Time’. She followed it earlier this week with the similarly effervescent ‘Before You Gotta Go’, ahead of the album’s full release on November 12 via Milk! / Remote Control.
The LP follows Barnett’s 2018 record, ‘Tell Me How You Really Feel’. In a four-star review, NME’s Dannii Leivers said it shows the Melbourne singer-songwriter “at her angriest and most vulnerable”, but notes that “being a drinker of details means she can also blow the beauty of life’s little things up to full-size”.
Avant Gardener, a documentary following “the inner life of the notoriously shy artist”, was premiered this month at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Speaking to NME, director Danny Cohen said making the film was an unusual experience given his relationship to Barnett as a longtime friend.
“It felt like I was filming a close friend and finding a story within their story, or trying to tell their story,” he said.
“I think after a while that’s really draining, because this is just your friend that’s going through all this stuff, and you’re making a film about it. It’s a weird dynamic. I think we are both excited to hang out together and not be filming.”
Barnett has also shared a series of cover songs throughout 2021, including her takes on the likes of Sharon Van Etten (‘Don’t Do It’) and Tim Hardin (‘Reason To Believe’), both featuring Vagabon. She’s also set to appear on a compilation album tributing The Velvet Underground.
The post Watch Courtney Barnett perform a dizzying rendition of ‘Rae Street’ on ‘Fallon’ appeared first on NME.
