Sauce

Launceston was well and truly ready for this great show at the Albert Hall, even though it did fall on a Tuesday night. Turning out in the hundreds, and arriving early, it seemed every local was ready to see Josh Pyke and The John Butler Trio in concert.

When Josh Pyke arrived onstage on the cold night, the crowd cheered loudly, and the old hall quickly warmed up. With the enthusiastic crowd, Josh was quickly welcomed, and started his set with Mannequins. When he reached the next song Memories and Dust (which features cute, newly-hatched chicks in the film-clip) the crowd went wild, as they did for the other singles Lines on Palms and Fed and Watered. But they never went so wild as when the last song started – Josh Pyke’s very first, and possibly most liked single, Middle of the Hill. Sadly, Josh left the stage, and once again the lights were dimmed.

After a fairly long wait, The John Butler Trio came onstage, and a very loud roar from the crowd got things underway. It seemed everyone knew the words, which seemed to give the band a great boost, with all three of them smiling widely throughout the entire show. They played the majority of the songs of the newest album, Grand National, without leaving out the huge favourites off the older LP, Sunrise Over Sea. The second last song was probably the crowd fave – Zebra.

Altogether it was a fairly good show, but my personal opinion is that the solos went on just a little too long, and none of the trio really moved about the stage at all. But a lot of people seemed to enjoy themselves, and that’s the main thing, really!

CAROLE WHITEHEAD