Friday, 7 September, 2007

by Brad Treeby
Soulshine

In a realm of infinite connectivity, it’s easy to build a soap box. It’s easy to ratify meritorious viewpoints, judge the actions of others, blog about your dissidence, and write protest songs. But what about doing? Does the ability to easily acquire knowledge, share information, and debate opinion make us into informed activists? Unlikely. Maybe all that is achieved is to dissociate surmised oratory from action. Of course complacent idealism is preferable to complete apathy, but what about the next step? The use of music as a call to arms is certainly not a new concept. History has given us The Hutchinson Family Singers, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan. In the new millennium you could probably go so far as to say that roots is the new folk. And John Butler? Well he’s certainly doing a lot of preaching. Only time will tell how much action this inspires. Opening the final show of his latest national tour in support of ‘Grand National’ with a blessing from the traditional Aboriginal land owners makes for a good start.

"Even now we still have one language, one culture, one land, one people"

Wise words from a Noongar elder. The traditional Aboriginal story telling (via didgeridoo and dance) was just as powerful. Support act Josh Pyke followed, quickly moving through tracks like Memories and Dust, Forever Song, and Fed and Watered from his ‘Memories and Dust’ LP released earlier this year.

"This has been the best tour we’ve ever done"

And it was easy to see why. Pyke’s voice was alluring and beautiful, traversing through the octaves with dexterity. The mix was tight and the arrangements strong. This was an entirely different experience to the Josh Pyke travelling the summer festival circuit earlier this year. A solo rendition of Vibrations in Air was enchanting, the seated audience at the Perth Concert Hall suitably impressed. The radio popular Private Education and Middle of the Hill closed the set and Pyke was done, leaving the stage to the sound of rapturous applause.

Following the obligatory line check and recheck, the curtains on the huge backing screen parted with the punters reminded of the John Butler Trio’s (JBT) environmental conscience "This is a carbon neutral event". Of course what sound track more appropriate than Feeling Good by sixties American civil rights activist Nina Simone.

"We come here in the name of peace, love, equality, and unity"

And then it was into Used to Get High, the backdrop of graphics modifying into a shifting collage of chimneys. Whilst many artists choose to wrap social commentary within poetic diction, Butler dropped composition for clarity, giving an explanation of his dissent at the response to hurricane Katrina, the subject of his accusatory Gov Did Nothing. The accompanying images were thought provoking, if not powerful. US troops with guns, weather patterns, oil fields, outlines of the Ku Klux Klan, pictures of the devastation. With the lights streaming from the ceiling, and Butler screaming into the resonator on his guitar, it was almost a surreal experience. A call to arms.

A beautiful solo version of Losing You followed by Oceans and the crowd were reminded just how outrageously good this man is on guitar. It was captivating. Pulsating green spherical lights and rising images accompanied by a huge rising climax. Of course some more educational information about the planned nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory and the importance of voting. Switching gears Butler reached again into his back catalogue to tell the story of Valley, a song about a woman he met on the street preaching through a battery powered amplifier that he would burn in hell. A relevant message about the importance of religious tolerance.

"After twelve years of sitting on my arse, my arse is sore"

And then the stool was gone, the JBT filling Groovin Slowly (a song inspired by dancing at the Norfolk Basement) with reggae inspired breakouts. Moving through Zebra into Good excuse, the crowd slowly started swelling out of their seats, into the aisles and the floor in front of the stage. After showing his skills on the upright bass, both Shannon Birchall and Butler left the stage leaving Michael Barker to impress the crowd with a ten minute drum solo, combining percussion with kit, sticks with hands, dance with Latin.

The encore saw the return of the JBT with Josh Pyke and Co and a stirring rendition of the Kelly / Carmody classic From Little Things Big Things Grow. With the aisles filled with people, the atmosphere was unsurprisingly a little less formal, Butler working the crowd into a boisterous unaccompanied sing-along to the end of Peaches and Cream "All I know is, I love you". Closing with Better Than and Funky Tonight the band were in perfect harmony.

"I can’t here you, there’s too much reverb in this room"

We can hear you John. Just don’t stop singing. And perhaps more importantly, just don’t stop doing what you’re doing.