Barns Courtney rocked The Foundry with his "Attractions of Youth" Tour

Copyright Dylan Eddinger Photography

After a full weekend of shows, we found ourselves cozied up on a couch at The Foundry at The Fillmore Monday night listening to opener Craig Strickland softly croon over looping guitar tracks and mellow beats.

But it wouldn’t stay that way for long.

When Barns Courtney took the stage, both he and the crowd were absolutely roaring to “Rather Die.” He took the stage with no pause or introduction and immediately started pounding on his guitar. We were lucky enough to see Barns at his 104.5 studio session earlier in the day, and this wild transition between gentle acoustic and loud full-band rock star was completely expected.

On tour to promote his September LP, The Attractions of Youth, it was really inspiring to watch him play these new songs after learning the backstory behind them earlier at 104.5. To really see all of that pent-up energy Barns spoke of come to fruition on stage, to watch him play songs that have been bursting to come out - it was an experience. Barns’s Foundry show might be my favorite concert of the year.

Backed by only a guitarist and a drummer, Barns was a multi-talented frontman, switching between guitar and piano throughout the night. The title track, “The Attractions of Youth,” was particularly haunting because Barns toned down his raucous energy and quietly played the slightly off-key chords, sitting mostly still and singing earnestly.

The crowd was singing and dancing along the entire time, especially for the hit single “Golden Dandelions” and “Hands,” when Barns grabbed a fan from the crowd and let him play the guitar for the entirety of the song. Cool? Very.

Barns Courtney is the kind of performer who’s all about crowd inclusion. He made sure we were all having a great time, talked to us through the set, took a video while he was onstage, and then waited patiently (even though he’s ridiculously sick) at the end of the night for us all to say hi and grab photos. We talked with drummer Rob Ketchum, who said that Barns will talk to every single person that came to his show if they wanted to talk. That’s what I completely love about this guy. He makes us feel like we’re as big as he is.

You can catch Barns Courtney on the road until the end of his tour on December 14th in Florida, and you can stream The Attractions of Youth everywhere now.

Copyright Dylan Eddinger Photography