JOHN BUTLER – ATHENAEUM – MELBOURNE – 05.11.2024
Review: Craig Eriksson. Photos: David Harris
It was an intimate and quite spiritual evening attending the Athenaeum Theatre tonight to experience John Butler performing his new instrumental album Still Searching. This is a brief 6-show tour in Australia and I was fortunate to attend tonight’s Melbourne show.
I have seen John Butler Trio (JBT) perform live at least a dozen times at festivals and live music venues over the past 20 plus years and I feel a real connection with his music. I resonate with his love, passion and commitment to our country’s history, First Nations people, environmental and social activism and his deep concerns with where the world is heading.
Tonight JB casually wandered out onto the stage, greeted the audience and began with a very raw, open conversation talking candidly about his inner thoughts, battle with anxiety and philosophical views and concerns with what is happening in the world. JB says he prays a lot these days and at times you could feel JB’s intense introspection about the state of the world and urged us to take a stand to stop our beautiful world being ruined. JB comes across as a very authentic, humble guy with a beautiful heart and soul.
JB delivered a heartfelt ‘Welcome to Country’, accentuating the long standing history and culture of our First Nations people. He then shared what he has been up to over the past 5 years since the beginning of the pandemic including the loss of his father and father-in-law within 40-hours of each other, along with coping with many life stresses. JB talked about the struggles he had working on his Eighth studio album and all these stressors got in the way of him being able to make the recording. So much so, he almost gave it away. He said he needed time to heal and recover and then something within made him decide to go back to his origins where it all started and days of busking when he played instrumental music. He stripped his music back to its bare essentials and this has led to him to present us with the gift of ‘The Four Seasons’ album series.
Australian Musician has featured JB a couple times this year, once discussing the Running River album and more recently talking guitars in our Still Searching video
JB has already released the 1st (season) instalment Running River album a few months ago, which is an ambience/mediation instrumental album. The 2nd (season) instalment album has just been released this week called ‘Still Searching.’ This has 6-tracks and is an instrumental body of work which JB promoted and played in its entirety tonight reuniting with former JBT member/drummer Michael Barker (drums and keys) and also having Michael Boase (percussion) joining him.
Still Searching is a world music collection incorporating a variety of instruments including slide guitar, banjo, dun, djembe, bongos, box drum (cajon), standard drumkit, keys, steel pans and cedar flute. These instruments created an earthy, rich, haunting and beautiful sound, that transports us sonically around the world to ancient and exotic countries of India, Africa, South America, The Middle East and Celtic countries.
The first song had JB playing slide-guitar and open tuning on EAST AND WEST. JB played solo on the East (oriental) part of the song and then Michael Barker and Michael Boase walked on stage and added the percussion section for the West part of the song. The synchronised drumming by both MB’s sounded incredible and created a strong rhythm and tribal effect.
In between each song, JB joked with the crowd and told stories about his life and travels and the amazing musicians he has met along the way that have influenced his music and from whom he has learnt from over the years. He talked about the blues and bluegrass which led into the second song BANJO LOOP, whereby JB played his banjo incorporating looping and open tuning.
CELT BLUES was next with its deep-rooted, mystical and emotional Celtic sound and rhythmic guitar which had the girl next to me crying tears of joy. I felt like I had been transported back to Scotland where I have previously lived and travelled years ago.
JB played a cedar flute on BREATHING CEDAR from the Running River album, which is an instrument I’ve never seen him play in his repertoire. It was beautiful and he truly is an incredible multi-instrumentalist. The song opened with a haunting solo on the flute, utilising its flexible and diverse tonal range and bending and sliding pitches. The breathy quality of the flute lent power to the tribal and trance-like atmosphere created when the percussion beats were added. Tambourine and hollow woodblock helped drive the rhythm forward with random sounding effects produced by MB on the cymbals.
This mystical ride continued as JB alternated instruments playing banjo and looping on REMEMBRANCE. The rhythmic drumming and percussion by MB’s blended with JB’s signature percussive guitar technique creates an earthy richness that complements Butler’s intricate guitar work.
SUNRISE was next with its uplifting, fresh sound as though we’re embracing a new day and ready to take on whatever is thrown at us. The intricacy with which JB plays the slide-guitar is musical mastery and brilliance!
RUNNING TO KEEP UP has a JBT sound to it with bongos, rhythmic guitar, drums, looping and percussion.
Much to the delight of the audience, JB came out on his own for the encore and performed his instrumental masterpiece OCEAN. This was definitely the crowd favourite and is always incredible to experience live. JB is one of the best guitarists I’ve ever seen.
JB then surprised everyone by breaking into song for WADE IN THE WATER from the JBT Home (2018) album.
The night concluded with the sing-a-long BETTER THAN from the JBT Grand National (2007) album, causing the crowd to sing with gusto:
“What can be better than now, Life’s not about what’s better than, You can be better than that, Don’t let it get the better of you.”
It was a fitting song to end a memorable night of world music by one of Australia’s finest multi-instrumentalists – pure brilliance. I can’t wait to hear the 3rd and 4th season instalments of this collective album series.
