Friday 27th August, Review by BEN AINSLIE

BLUE KING BROWN took to the stage and immediately launched into what for me was a familiar set (having seen their current show two months ago at a German festival). While the setlist might have been almost song for song identical to what I caught on that former Luftwaffe airstrip, it was no less enjoyable. Vocalist Natalie Pa’apa’a has a charismatic air about her which tempers what could otherwise be quite sanctimonious lyrics. Blue King Brown has a lot more to offer than a be-dreaded enviro-pixie extolling lefty values though. Bass, percussion, drums, guitar, and backing vocals play with the comfortable ease borne of having jammed extensively. You kind of get the feeling that the band sits around noodling together on their instruments in their spare time just for fun.

THE JOHN BUTLER TRIO bounced on stage with a spring in their step. They immediately put this reviewer in a good frame of mind by opening up their set with an old favourite, ‘Pickapart‘. Political message wasn’t thin on the ground here either, with regular interludes about Barnette’s land grab in the north, and the coal and oil projects in the south west. Absent though, was the fire and brimstone conviction of his early days.

This may well have been because of the crowd: a marked departure from the make up of the original trio’s audiences. Headbands and bare feet have been replaced by chardonnay and smart leather jackets (admittedly it was bullshit cold). From my spot up the back, there seemed to be little real interest in what was taking place on the stage. This even became apparent to the trio when they gathered around a single mic and implored the crowd to be as silent as possible so they could cover Kev Carmody’s ‘Thou Shalt Not Steal‘. There was a time when a request like that would have been met with the kind of silence you find in funeral parlors and elevators.

But older, disrespectful, crowd aside, there is no getting around the fact that Butler, Nicky Bomba [drums] and Byron Luiters [bass] are extremely good at what they do. They played predominantly from the more recent back catalogue, everything from ‘Sunrise Over Sea‘ forward. Musical trio’s lend themselves well to fantastic musicianship, without the sound of four to five other bandmates to try and stand out from, all three members of the trio were able to put their skills on display. Curiously absent was the tendency of previous JBT incarnations to descend into mind bending instrumental interludes. The closest they got was a rendition of ‘Ocean‘, a delirious eight minutes of 12-string finger picking insanity.

There is no question that John Butler is a master of his craft, and he has absolutely found the groove with his latest trio. It just seems a little like there was a space between act and audience on friday night, something the JBT worked hard to overcome, but couldn’t.