Live Review: Billy Bragg, Courtney Barnett

Hiding behind her brunette bangs under a spotlight, Courtney Barnett opens the night minus backing band. Stripping back her compositions, Barnett is left with her deadpan vocal style and southpaw guitar swagger. At one moment she plays misanthropic country the next, breezy folk. On Avant Gardener our raconteur crows, “The paramedic thinks I'm clever 'cause I play guitar/I think she's clever 'cause she stops people dying.” Barnett is a hilarious blend of self-deprecation and celebration.

Despite the subdued nature of an all-seated venue, there is nothing reserved about the reception for Billy Bragg. Opening with Ideology and following up with 2013's No One Knows Nothing Anymore, the message is as clear as it's ever been: Bragg is still a rebel with a cause. A Billy Bragg show can easily be understood as music meets comedy with political commentary. The Essex songster can banter with the best of them, taking light-hearted swipes at Perth Glory Football Club, Hobart, Lonnie Donegan and rough sex. Margaret Thatcher and Gina Rinehart unsurprisingly draw Bragg's ire, Bragg all the while treading a fine line between acerbic and absurdist. All You Fascists has Bragg right back in the political punk pocket and all here love him for it. A chilling cover of Woody Guthrie's I Ain't Got No Home turns the tempo down a notch before Bragg's backing band exit the stage. Left to his own devices Bragg trots out sentimental favourites The Milkman Of Human Kindness and Between The Wars. As the band returns and the set enters its closing stages, the hits roll in. Sexuality is followed by A New England, initially disguised in the ruse of a long lost Kraftwerk collaboration replete with thumping electronic introduction. The chorus is left to the crowd to sing, a challenge that we gleefully accept.

Tonight's encore is almost like a separate show. All facets of Bragg's immense songwriting ability are on display. There Is Power In A Union is a paean to the working class, just Bragg and his guitar – enthralling and empowering. Tank Park Salute is a delicate, heart-wrenching ode to life lost. Bragg takes one last jab at Tony Abbott and the Rupert Murdoch media before Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards sees the entire cast returning to the stage as the night comes to a cathartic conclusion. Over 30 years in the music industry has done nothing to blunt the razor-sharp Billy Bragg, and may it never do so.