John Butler Trio at First Avenue

John Butler Trio brings Flesh & Blood to Minneapolis

Australian roots-rockers the John Butler Trio hit First Avenue in Minneapolis with a Sunday night show to a near capacity crowd. Touring to support the release of their sixth studio album Flesh & Blood that was released just last week, the trio didn’t take long to share their Australian warmth and bring the room together. Before the second song, Butler even evoked his inner shaman and took time to give respect to our Native Americans, and all of our ancestors that brought us here.

John Butler’s songwriting is oftentimes provoked by social events and love, sometimes even mixing the two. His classic song “Zebra” from the 2003 release Sunrise Over Sea is a good example of this, and one of highlights of the night. Before the band started, Butler told the crowd that they were going to have to sing along to the next song or things were going to get really awkward. Once he strummed out the first chord on his 12 string acoustic, the crowd reacted with a wail and were more than willing to partake in the lively chorus.

Overall the set was heavy on new tunes from Flesh & Blood. And while the crowd may not have danced as hard to those, most listened along respectfully soaking it in. At one point Butler even apologized for playing a lot of newer material, saying “Now it’s a good time to connect.” Connect they did when he later sat down alone stage right, and began finger picking at one of his most famous tunes Ocean. This song was ten minutes of peaks and valleys, and those in the back of the room who couldn’t see well huddled beneath a big screen mouths agape as John Butler tore this song to shreds with the claws of his right hand. By the end the entire floor was cheering in harmony.

This was my first time seeing the John Butler Trio. Overall I enjoyed this show, but after a while it became evident that a similar build-dynamics recipe was called upon for most songs. This is just his style of songwriting and it works, but it at times became predictable.

Little Hurricane, the straight up rock duo from California, opened the show and need to be commended as well. They put on a fantastic set, with snappy rock drums and big guitars. I really liked their version of the classic “Ain’t No Sunshine”. They were having a lot of fun and deserved the big crowd reaction they received.

John Butler Trio

Little Hurricane