Milk! Records' 'Good for You' Tour Review – 10/03/2016

While hosting hordes of students is not out of the ordinary for the UC Refectory, doing so while conjuring up the feeling of being in your best mate’s lounge room is a bit more unusual. And yet, that’s exactly what Milk! Records’ ‘Good for You’ tour managed to pull off on Thursday night as Courtney Barnett and her many label mates took over the stage for over three hours.

After winning Best Independent Label at the 2015 Australian Independent Music Awards along with Barnett picking up four ARIAs, a Grammy nomination and four songs in 2016’s Hottest 100, the release of the ‘Good for You’ compilation and subsequent tour felt like a well-earned victory lap. Despite this, there was no hint of pretention in the air with the audience instead feeling welcomed into an intimate show with their very talented friends. Inclusiveness was the theme of the evening and with International Women’s Day having just passed on March 8, it was easy and pleasing to see the label’s focus on the often under represented female musician.
The duo of The Finks kicked off the festivities as they took to the stage with just a guitar and cello, easing the already strong crowd into the vening with some charming indie-folk and banter. Through comparisons of Canberra to Paris, spoken-word poetry and playful tunes with intertwining male/female vocals, it didn’t take long for the audience to be won over. The band didn’t overstay their welcome either, ending their set with a cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Chelsea Hotel’ before departing but thankfully, it wouldn’t be the last time they were seen that night.
 
Up next was the East Brunswick All Girls Choir, although it was difficult to determine when one band ended and the other began as performers would often drift onto stage to play a song or two before disappearing. It gave the evening a sense of spontaneity that is often missing in live performances, especially in those at the level of popularity that Courtney Barnett has achieved. The band themselves had little in common with The Finks with their rough-around-the-edges Australian pub rock with the driving force of two drummers behind them. Despite their rowdier nature, the band lost no sense of professionalism and quickly got the attention of every audience member.
 
Some of this energy was lost when the stage was vacated for a fifteen-minute intermission but was quickly regained when the woman of the hour, Courtney Barnett took to the stage. However, despite riding high and winning the 2015 Australian Music Prize (along with a cool $30,000) the night before, Barnett was happy to take a backseat as she took over guitar duties while Jen Cloher took centre stage. This was something Cloher was clearly familiar with after being a mainstay on the Australian music scene for over a decade, commanding the stage while channelling the spirits of Joan Jett and Patti Smith. Her persona and looks wasn’t the only reflection of these influences as her all-female band blasted the audience with some old school rock, peaking with compilation highlight ‘Famously Monogamous’.
 
While band members continually drifted on and off stage to little fanfare, when Fraser A. Gorman swaggered onto stage, the crowd reacted as if their best friend had just appeared. With effortless charm, he led his label mates through renditions of his country tunes, reminiscent of Bob Dylan and Neil Young, harmonica solos and all. His ramshackle songs perfectly encapsulated the evening as he solidified his crowd-favourite status by wandering into the audience while also delighting them with banter ranging from the War Memorial to his dealings with a child window washer in his hometown of Melbourne.

It was after Gorman had a back to back duelling guitar battle with Courtney Barnett that the headliner took the spotlight and gave the crowd a blistering thirty-minute set that didn’t let up. While she offered little in the way of banter, those in attendance were instead treated to just about every hit in her catalogue, with the highlights being the big sing-a-long of ‘Depreston’ before whipping the audience into a frenzy with ‘Pedestrian at Best’. By this point, nearly all the night’s performers were on stage and those who were missing soon appeared as the evening ended with a big jam session of David Bowie’s ‘Suffragette City’ and Neil Young’s ‘Cinnamon Girl’.
 
As the crowd dispersed, it was difficult not to hear some audience members’ surprise that this was not a Courtney Barnett show but rather a showcase for her record label. Despite this, none of them appeared disappointed, instead pleased with their new musical discoveries while still being able to walk away from the evening knowing that they had witnessed not just one, but eleven Australian musicians at their creative peak.