Live Review: Billy Bragg, Courtney Barnett

Courtney Barnett took to the intimidating task of playing to a half-full Concert Hall with naught but her guitar with a quiet confidence. Barnett's casual storytelling was the perfect opener, her short set broken up with amusing banter that lead cleverly into songs like Avant Gardener, arousing some chuckles from the captivated audience.

Billy Bragg is a gregarious, warm-hearted personality on stage. Generous with his band, quick with a sharp retort to hecklers and overflowing with amusing anecdotes, Bragg had the audience warmed to him the minute he stood under the spotlight. Between a slew of songs including the melodically catchy Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key, he rambled jovially on everything from Gina Rinehart, to Morrissey (Bragg hasn't read the autobiography and wants to know if he's mentioned in it), and safe words for rough sex (his is Lonnie Donegan, in case you were wondering).

It was fitting that the concert fell on the same day as the March In March protest, at which Bragg had been present. His songs, some over 30 years old, still strike a chord with their all too familiar themes of social inequality, workers' rights and economic strife. This made even clearer when Bragg introduced his cover of Woody Guthrie's I Ain't Got No Home – from Bragg's last record – with the addendum that the original was released over 70 years ago, but its themes are undoubtedly prevalent. The crowd was on his side through his impassioned speeches, and voices were quick to join in on A New England and Sexuality. Yet it was his call to the audience to drop the cynicism that holds people back from fully fighting for change, before launching into a boisterous rendition of Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards, that made the set all the more poignant.