The John Butler Trio 26/05/07

The John Butler Trio 26/05/07
The Roundhouse is heaving on this April Thursday night, its circular grandeur providing the perfect air of intimacy for a John Butler Trio gig. Wherever you stand in amongst the crowd you never feel distanced from the action. The crowd, too, feels slightly different to the usual aussie contingent in Shepherd’s Bush or Brixton but that does not affect the tumultuous roar as the trio take to the stage. The opening bounce of Better Than gets the crowd moving immediately to the strains of John’s banjo and its ridiculously catchy chorus that blends perfectly with Shannon Birchall’s walking bass line and Michael Barker’s drums. Indeed if there’s one element that makes JBT work so well, it’s the way the virtuoso nature of the musicianship sounds so simple as the three performers combine so seamlessly creating a rootsy landscape of sound that swells and ebbs right to the walls of the venue. As John launches into the slide intro of Betterman the crowd really wakes up and rightly so as the old favourite encapsulates everything that JBT are about - John’s epic guitar solo making every guitarist in the room wonder and envy simultaneously while the groove of Used To Get High has everyone’s hips shaking yet again. Looking around the room, there is not a single person not smiling as the rasping slide of Treat Yo Mama turns into the heavy crunch of its verse and you feel that JBT own this crowd as new song Caroline precedes the breakneck guitar work of Oldman. The jazz and blues inflections of the New Orleans-influenced Gov Did Nothin’ prove that JBT can pull off pretty much anything they put their hands to as does the reggae skank of Groovin’ Slowly. But perhaps the gig’s most incredible moment is the soaring instrumental rendition of Ocean that lasts about ten minutes but has the audience hanging on every flickering note and as John taps the body of his guitar and slaps his strings to create a depth of sound that should not be possible from an acoustic guitar, you realise this a musician at the height of his talents and it is spellbinding to watch. There is an aching majesty to the rich plateau of sound that he creates and the crowd can’t take their eyes off him. The funk of Hello brings the crowd back to reality and again you can hardly restrain your feet from moving and as John plucks out the opening notes of Zebra the crowd erupts into voice and BA BA BA BADA DA rings to the rafters and the grin on John’s face can be seen right at the back of the room. The first song of the encore is Peaches & Cream, which is as beautiful as it is touching, and the five-minute sing-along that it ends with will perhaps be the memory most people take away from the gig as the entire crowd sings the last lines over and over again. The final song, Funky Tonight, gives Michael Barker the platform for a breathtaking drum solo and it seems that the frontman is playing a game of “fastest fingers in the west” with himself as the tune explodes into its blues-funk crescendo. As the trio take their bows and walk off the stage for the last time the applause is deafening and you suddenly realise they’ve been playing for almost two hours straight. In Australia JBT are one of the biggest artists in the country, recent album Grand National debuting at number one, and judging by tonight, perhaps it is safe to say that it will not be too long before they enjoy the same success over here: they damn well deserve it. Also, in a British music scene stagnating with indie sound-alikes, maybe that would be a good thing.