John Butler Trio

M and I went to see the John Butler Trio last Tuesday at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul.  While the band has come to Minnesota many times over the past years, M and I have passed on seeing them each time because they always seems to play at First Avenue, a venue that neither of us care for anymore, however when I saw they were coming to the Fitzgerald, I jumped at the chance to go and gave the tix to M as an anniversary present.

Mat McHugh, the singer of The Beautiful Girls opened the show, which was a pleasant surprise to us as we did not know who the opener was and we enjoy some of the music of The Beautiful Girls. 

John Butler Trio hails from Australia and is most described as roots rock/jam band and they are known for their live shows. Once they took the stage, the crowd was on its feet rocking and dancing and there would be little time in the next hours that any of us would be sitting down.  The show started at 7:30 pm with the opener who played for around 30-40 minutes and the rest of the time was dedicated to JBT and the show wouldn't be done until 11:05 pm.  The show itself was truly incredible.  It was sometimes hard to believe that they rocked as loud and hard as they did with only three people on stage.  I can't say I had one favorite part or one favorite song (maybe "Better Than") but some musical highlights of the show included the use of the slide guitar, the bass (including upright bass) and drum solos, the trio all drumming together, the 11 minute song "Ocean", the didgeridoo and my favorite, the banjo.

I've seen hundreds of bands in my concert career which spans over 21 years and this was the funnest (I know it's not proper English) concert I've ever been to, which says A LOT.  Waiting to see JBT for all these years in the appropriate venue for M and I was the best decision.   If you don't know their music, I highly recommend them to you!  I searched for a long time for a good video representation of the band and while I couldn't find any good live ones with the current lineup, (the band is somewhat of a revolving door)  I choose this one so watch it!  It might remind of you somewhat of the Dave Matthews Band for this song, however they are not that similar altogether. 

If you feel like watching the whole concert, click below!

Watch live streaming video from johnbutlertrio at livestream.com