John Butler Trio announces U.S. tour w/ stop in Atlanta

This band isn't that easy to catch. They're from Australia and give the States some love but as much of a fan as I am I've only seen them once.

They played a free show in Mobile last year to make up for a one that was cancelled by Hurricane Katrina. So I decided to go down because I have had trouble catching them in the past. It was at a place called Felix's Fish Camp, which if you're familiar with you know is an amazing place for a concert. Sand, suds and great music is a wonderful combination.

Anyway, quite possibly the weirdest thing I've seen at a live concert happened that day. Being that the venue was on the water, some decided to arrive by boat. Only they were airboats and it was easily 20 minutes into the show. So all the sudden, mid-song, we all heard this roar and lo and behold two airboats pulled up a good 30 feet from the stage. Most of the crowd noticed this and laughed it off. The airboats stopped and all was well.

But the guys on one of the boats weren't satisfied with their unusual entry and decided to pull up a good 5 feet onto the beach. If you've ever heard an airboat you know how load they can be. It was just this enormously loud noise for such a short ride. So much so that the band heard it over their own playing and John Butler flinched and looked over his shoulder to see what the commotion was. They continued playing the song and afterward John said something to the effect of: "I'm glad to see everything is OK. I thought that the aliens were landing for a minute." Then it was onto the next song. It was all rather bizarre. Regardless, it was a great evening.

If you're a fan of acoustic guitar, you must check these guys out. They're playing at the Variety Playhouse on Nov. 5, which is a Monday. However, on Nov. 3, which is a Saturday, they're playing at the Sweetwater Festival in Milledgeville, Ga.

John Butler Trio Web site

JBT Myspace Page