LIVE, IN PHOTOS: Courtney Barnett at The Pico Union Project in LA

It was a hot and sweaty scene inside LA’s one-of-a-kind Pico Union Project on Thursday night, where the pews were pulled out and the beer was pulled in for one of Courtney Barnett’s first shows in support of her new album, Tell Me How You Really Feel. (You can read our FLOOD 8 cover story on Barnett here.)

Walnut Creek’s finest Jay Som brought the average age in the room down a bit when they opened up the evening with a tight, guitar-heavy set (“It’s like a huge vape hit,” Melina Duterte noted of the smoke machine fog hovering in the room), and by the time Barnett came on, it was standing room only, to say the least. Drenched in red light to match the cover and mood of the new record, Barnett and her band introduced the crowd to Tell Me How You Really Feel song by song—a bold move considering that it’s still a week out from release—before treating everyone to a few of her new classics like “Depreston” and “Avant Gardener.”

Our own Kirby Gladstein was there to take it all in. You can check out her photos below.