John Butler Trio @ Riverstage,Brisbane (23/09/2010)

Mon 27th Sep, 2010 in Gig Reviews

It’s only fitting that John Butler Trio are playing the Riverstage. The sprawling green hillsides, and the lush foliage of the Brisbane Botanical Gardens make the ideal setting for the earthly trio. Very few bands remain as consistent live over the space of their ten year career. It’s a testament to the group’s ability as musicians, each member invariably adaptable and formidable, there’s no dead weight.

The band walk onto the stage, bathed in a neon purple light and the glimmer of mobile phones sprout out of the crowd front of stage. Rather than please the audience with one of his more recent creations, Butler starts the set with an old favourite, Pickapart. It’s hard to believe the track is almost a decade old because it still receives a warm welcome from the legion of young and old. Newer songs like One Way Road are dispersed evenly throughout the old classics as the night goes on. I Used to Get High sees Butler dance a jig around the stage, but for the most part he’s confined in front of his mic stand.

The trio explore a vast array of multicultural soundscapes; from Indian and middle eastern to indigenous Australian, blues and country. It’s a reflection of the group’s disregard for prejudice – they’re accepting, no matter what colour or creed.

Songs like Treat Yo Momma are jammed out to exorbitant lengths, but not to the point where they are overbearing. Butler is especially dynamic throughout the course of the evening exploring every inch of his fret-board. No chord is left out; no notes left unplayed, as he guides his bottleneck slide up and down the neck. An array of instruments are passed between guitar techs and band members, as banjos, twelve string guitars and a double bass are exchanged between the three throughout the evening.

Butler is also able to milk a broad array of sounds out of the most simple of instruments, using effects pedals to create tones sounding like harmonicas, string sections and whale cries. Nicky Bomba follows suit and melds bongos, snare drum and tom toms into dense tribal polyrhythms. He also boasts a Caribbean steel drum which adds extra flavour to the delicate Peaches And Cream where Butler sits as if illuminated by sunlight in a forest glade.

Natalie Pa’apa’a from Blue King Brown joins the group on stage for Good Excuse which satisfies the audience members who aren’t so wooed by musical prowess, but after the standing ovation butler receives for his ten minute solo odyssey on guitar, it’s clear that those people are a select few.

Perhaps the one thing that has proved the cornerstone of the band’s popularity is that they have remained endearing even with an increasing amount of mainstream and overseas success. Their core DIY and independent ethic has remained unchanged, but more importantly, they appear human and relatable on a personal level. Butler’s banter between numbers is pedantic but also touching, creating awareness of important environmental and social issues, as well as reciting personal stories about himself and his family. This connection between performer and audience is no more evident when he asks audience members to embrace a loved one, during one his ballads and a group of around fifteen people link arms in unity. He constantly drowns his followers in praise, but perhaps too much at times.

The last song in the encore Funky Tonight is expanded out to let the entire trio exert their confidence in their chosen musical areas. Butler casually strolls off stage to let his band members hog the spotlight. Byron Luiters plucks and thumbs away at his bass for a few minutes before he too, walks off, and leaves drummer Nicky Bomba to enchant the audience.

Though initially it appears that Bomba may lack the flair of his predecessor Michael Barker, but as his arms criss-cross at blinding speed during a jaw-dropping drum solo, he sets his critics straight. Bomba engages the crowd into some call-and-response passages before the trio reunite. Butler jumps off the drum rider and brings the evening to a close.