The John Butler Trio is an Australian band that is beginning to make an impression in the US opened for Dave Mathews Band before a sellout crowd in the TD garden on November 9th and 10th. The John Butler powerful trio has a very unique sound that seems to be coming from different directions. Butler’s range of instrumental talent is diverse and intetesting. He is a master of the banjo, 12 and six string guitar as well as the unconventional stand up bass often scene strictly in a Jazz ensemble.  But JBT put it to great use, especially on “Better Than” among other songs. The highlight of the show was of course a thunderous version of his hit “Ocean” which was introduced by John simply saying, “just think of everything that you want in your life and that matters to you that you just can’t put into words”. The song was played perfectly and drew huge emotion out of the crowd, as it always does. When asked about what it felt like to play that song, Butler said “it’s such an emotional song, I have trouble grasping the magnitude of the song, I just wrote it twelve years ago as a Celtic instrument and it grew into something else, its great”. The JBT had a very energetic set list that was put together to get the crowd into JBT’s music. Butler said “we played just a best of, the crowd largely didn’t know us and we wanted to turn them on to our music, so we just gave them our best songs in hope they really enjoy them”.

The John Butler Trio is huge in the Australian music scene but slowly gaining fans wherever they play. They are often the opening act where the audience is unfamiliar with their music but see it worthwhile to take notice. But Butler says, “Playing shows like Boston keeps us hungry, trying to get new fans, making people appreciate our music.” The fans on the 10th seemed to love their music. Thunderous applause broke out in the middle of “Ocean” and when the group closed with a fantastic rendition of “Funky Tonight”, which included an extended ending in which all three member played the drum kit together Butler said he came up with the end of the set “about ten years ago, and it was influenced by the school I went to, where we had a few good percussion groups”. There were some measuring sticks of the trio’s success. After their set, they announced they would be signing autographs on the concourse level of the arena, and within five minutes the line stretched around half the level, and the JBT merchandise staff was forced to turn away over 500 fans who wanted to meet the band. Based on crowd reaction alone the night was a success, and if you want one more indicator of the respect this group has, how many other opening bands would get introduced by the headlining act of the show that night? Dave Mathews walked out on stage and told the fans the story of how he met the JBT, and then introduced them. That’s not very common in music nowadays.