Presented By JARRH Records

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By: Jake Ebdale

Artist: John Butler

Date: Sunday 16th May 2021

Venue: Powerstation, Auckland, NZL

Pandemic, yada-yada-yada. You’ve heard it all before, how it’s gutted the global live music industry. New Zealand, on the other hand, in its own little world and managing the virus, has held gigs with 50,000 punters, with local bands of varying states flourishing in these strange times. It’s been great for us, but I selfishly want more when it comes to live shows. Live streams just don’t cut it – I want the real thing! So with the news of the NZ-Australia travel bubble opening, our musical world all of a sudden became rife with Aussie possibilities. John Butler, charismatic busker-hippie multi-instrumentalist, jumped at the opportunity to fly over here, including us on his new solo tour. It felt like the beginning of something special, like we were going back to normal gig-wise. Tame Impala can wait.

Butler is a master of the acoustic guitar – you’d be hard pressed to find anyone more skilled at his brand of fingerpicked, melodic patterns bolstered by the loop pedal – and he’s only gotten better since he broke onto the scene with ‘Betterman’ in the early noughts. His music has changed from something indebted to Pearl Jam to its own upbeat brand of guitar pop, with some sure-fire classic albums along the way. He is also a master at gripping an audience with lengthy anecdotes, and having seen Butler at least five times over the decades, he’s never seemed more natural speaking to a crowd than tonight. Maybe it was the thrill of playing in another country.

With palpable excitement in the air amid other reviewing cliches, Butler’s set was varied, energetic and well-paced. He played well-known hits, like ‘Better Than’ and ‘Used to Get High’ from Grand National (2007), ‘Zebra’ from Sunrise Over Sea (2004) and the more recent ‘Wade in the Water’ from HOME (2018). There was a beautiful version of ‘O Danny Boy’ tied to a story of his grandmother and a passed down Dobro guitar, as well as an acidic spoken-word takedown of political greed and racial hatred. Some could misconstrue Butler as self-indulgent or preachy, but he’s smarter than that. Instead, the connection with his Kiwi fans is genuine and heartfelt. It made for a fun, relaxed gig that peaked with his performance of ‘Ocean’. The 10-minute plus instrumental has morphed from a mid-set filler (even featuring on his first album as a vastly inferior sketch) to the star of the show. Talking in Skynyrd-centric musical albatrosses, if ‘Peaches and Cream’ is his ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, ‘Ocean’ is his ‘Freebird'. But unlike 'Freebird', 'Ocean' continues to change. If you want an aural picture, it’s like Jefferson Airplane’s ‘Embryonic Journey’ on steroids, a 12-string freight train of raw emotion. Ed Sheeran may or may not have taken a few notes too. Whatever it means, ‘Ocean’ is something spiritually heavy for John – “sometimes that song just kicks my ass”, he says – and you can tell it holds a special place in a lot of fans’ hearts too, including this reviewer. Hell, I even bought the signed 12” vinyl at the merch stand. It’s that bloody good.

Closing with the jammy ‘Zebra’ (he may have done an encore, but we had to gap home), John Butler gives us a little taste of the international on a Sunday night in autumn. Can’t get much better than that.

Review Edited By: Ben Doy