Jack Johnson, 10/6/10
Berkeley, California

It was a cool night in Berkeley, California's Greek Theater as Jack Johnson took the stage by himself, getting ready to play the first song of the night, a solo version of "Do You Remember." But, he messed up the first line, singing the second verse first. Laughing at himself, Johnson calmly stepped back and said, "What am I supposed to do? I walk up here and it looks like they have a smoke machine - but, I think it's just someone in the front row." For many other artists, this would be a terrible way to start a show. But for Jack Johnson, messing up the lyrics was almost a blessing, allowing fans to see his personality - a calm and relaxed guy who was just there to play some music.

After taking the crowd through a couple of classics such as "Banana Pancakes" and "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing" and the popular single "You and Your Heart," Johnson introduced the rest of the band, with special focus on pianist Zach Gill. After saying Gill's job was to convince the band to play songs they don't play too often, they decided to skip new songs, such as "To the Sea" and "My Little Girl," in favor of the underplayed "Sleep Through the Static" and "Tomorrow Morning." It was a great way for Johnson & the band to show that they are not relying solely on their new songs to put on an amazing show.

Johnson also mixed in a lot of covers throughout his own songs. The way that Johnson transferred between songs was smooth and natural, to the point that some fans didn't even realize the song had changed. For example, he played "Horizon has Been Defeated" and then added in a few verses and choruses of the Sublime classics, "Badfish" and "Boss DJ." These three songs were welded together so perfectly, if you didn't know Sublime, you would think it was Johnson's song all the way through.

Throughout the entire concert, Johnson's personality became even more apparent. He was constantly smiling at the crowd and his band members, and just looked like he was having a great time. During the chorus of "Good People," the faces of audience members were projected on the screen behind the band. After Johnson sung, "Where'd all the good people go," he looked at the screen and exclaimed, "There they are!" This was one of the many moments when Johnson connected with his audience, making the show even better.

All of Johnson's mellowness on stage was counteracted by Gill's general wackiness. During songs when Gill didn't have a part to play, he would get up and walk around the stage, clapping to the music. During songs he was in, he got the crowd going with his fast piano solos and incredible voice. When Johnson and Gill sung "Girl I Wanna Lay You Down," Gill brought the energy level up by starting the wave and crowd cheers. Even though their personalities differ on stage, Johnson and Gill make an entertaining and generally great team.

Johnson started out the encore with "Angel," a song he wrote for his wife Kim. Before the song, someone in the crowd asked Jack to marry her and he replied, "I can't marry you, I'm already married. You can pretend like this song's for you though." When people screamed and cheered for him, he had a look on his face that said "Really...for me?" - as if he didn't realize how popular he was. He finished the concert by bringing up the rest of his band and his friends Paula Fuga, Zee Avi, and Dan Lebowitz to play "Better Together." All the special guests he brought up made this live show a completely unique take on his music.

"At or With Me" was the only down part of the concert. I was really looking forward to hearing this fast-passed rock 'n roll song by Jack, but it wasn't nearly as good live as on record. The band didn't have that tight and together feel they had on every other song, and it was played at a much slower pace than on the album.

All in all, this was an amazing concert. It was a show that I would definitely pay to see again, especially since Jack was donating 100% of the profits to his charitable foundation that support arts, music education and the environment. This, again, says so much about his personality – it shows how much he cares about others and is content with the life he has, making great music and performing it even better.



Reviewed by: Nathan