Kicked off a week of Aussie concerts here in Vancouver tonight (The Temper Trap and Xavier Rudd still to come) with the incomparable John Butler Trio rocking Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom with their own unique blend of blues and roots rock.
Playing to a packed and sold out house, John Nicky & Byron performed an outstanding set (will post the full set list if and when I get my hands on it) consisting of a well received blend of songs from their new album “April Uprising” mixed in with a bunch of their all-time favourite tunes like “Used to Get High”, “Better Than”, “Something’s Gotta Give”, “Zebra” and more.
Highlights for me were definitely John’s now famous solo 12-string performance of the powerful and beautiful “Ocean” and a great little Banghra-style breakdown the boys pulled out during a rendition of “Treat Yo Mama”.
As I always like to do when I’m entertained long before the headlining act hits the stage, I have to give credit to tonight’s openers from Boston, Massachusetts – a solid trio called “State Radio”. Some people may be familiar with the reggae influenced single “Right Me Up” from their 2006 offering “Us Against The Crown”. I can say without hesitation that they are definitely worth checking out.
State Radio clearly have a healthy following, as I found myself surrounded in the opening set by a dozen fans who have been following the band around the US north-west having watched the boys perform in both Portland and Seattle a few nights previous. Pretty excited about being in Vancouver too, they were.
So yup, I definitely had a great night out filled with fantastic tunes that kept the sizable crowd jumping until the final encore number. I’m SERIOUSLY looking forward to “The Temper Trap” on Tuesday! I’ll be out with a good crew of people I convinced to come along with me, so I’ll be back to tell you all about that one later in the week!
Jen
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