Jack Johnson and his buddies are having a jam sesh, and you\u2019re invited. At least, that\u2019s how it felt to watch Johnson live at the Greek Theatre on Sept. 30, the first day of his two-show stay at the venue. Johnson\u2019s ability to make every last audience member feel like a close personal friend is the mellow magic that keeps fans coming back.<\/p>\n
As the sun set on pastel skies, the gathering crowd bubbled with excitement. A sea of patchwork blankets spread across the green as the amphitheater filled below. Multicolored balloons reverberated above the pit as concertgoers shifted from foot to foot in anticipation.<\/p>\n
Johnson took the stage wearing flip flops, a hoodie and a smile warm as summer. The set behind him undulated like the ocean, from blue to amber to green. The atmosphere he created began with the musicians who surrounded him \u2014 Johnson played alongside musicians G. Love, Zach Gill and other longtime friends and artistic collaborators. Watching the group onstage, the genuine friendship washed over the crowd akin to Pipeline waves crashing on Hawaii\u2019s North Shore.<\/p>\n
G. Love, opening for Johnson and joining him on stage throughout the show, goes way back with Johnson, all the way to 1998. The comfortability between the artists was made absolutely clear through their performance. During the show, G. Love even called Johnson and his wife \u201cdear friends,\u201d describing a track he played, \u201cStill Hangin\u2019 Around\u201d as \u201capropos\u201d to the friendship.<\/p>\n
Performing alongside dorm-days friend Zach Gill, Jack reminisced on his college days at UCSB. The friend group he formed there would go on to travel the world together, surfing, camping and filmmaking. Johnson is a storyteller through his art, and much of his music describes those memories. \u201cI started realizing, for a song, all I really had to do was take what I saw during the daytime and put it into a song to try and make my friends laugh at night,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
Jack\u2019s authenticity and easygoing humor showcased during the night was not only captivating to witness. For a current student, the experiences that have inspired his music don\u2019t seem quite far off from the experiences being actively lived. He even described how \u201cSlow Down Bruce\u201d was written as a desperate attempt for a paper extension, performed originally in his professor\u2019s office. In this lies a wonderful reminder \u2014 you never know what the future holds for you and your friends. Perhaps down the line you may hear your college memories sung by a crowd at a concert. Perhaps even you\u2019ll be the one onstage, writing those memories into something bigger than yourself.<\/p>\n
Jack Johnson may be a global hit, acclaimed by millions of fans around the world, but warm interactions with audience members melted away the pedestal of fame, drawing in the crowd like the tide. He attained this not only with his personal composure, but also through his wonderfully surprising and deeply engaging setlist. Johnson rang in night one with a lively rendition of \u201cMudfootball\u201d and the nostalgic \u201cTaylor.\u201d The setlist further featured many of his most popular hits, as well as tracks featured in \u201cSURFILMUSIC\u201d \u2014 the Jack Johnson documentary released earlier this summer. As Johnson played the chorus of \u201cDo You Remember,\u201d audience voices rose like helium balloons as hundreds of concertgoers swayed back and forth.<\/p>\n
Notably, Johnson\u2019s performance featured several mash-ups of his own songs with those of other artists. In true jam session fashion, Johnson and his friends let the flow of their own music ebb into classics by musicians such as Tom Petty, The Cars and Steve Miller Band. Upon mixing his track \u201cBanana Pancakes\u201d with Dolly Parton\u2019s \u201c9 to 5,\u201d Johnson\u2019s tribute received a fervent audience reaction. \u201cUpside Down\u201d also morphed into a rendition of Sublime\u2019s \u201cBadfish.\u201d Watching Johnson bounce between his own art and the music he loves made the concert feel all the more natural and inviting.<\/p>\n
Inviting his band back onstage, Johnson closed his show fittingly with \u201cBetter Together.\u201d The way in which Johnson\u2019s performance felt so genuine, uplifting and personal allowed all to acquire a reinvigorated appreciation for everyday moments with friends and family. Johnson\u2019s show reminds us of the limitless future possible when one is inspired by the people they love and the adventures they embark upon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Johnson and his buddies are having a jam sesh, and you\u2019re invited. At least, that\u2019s how it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[16789,190214,26284,190213,105277,143,145,144,1845,190217,190216,94668,190218,190215,46508,46977,190219],"class_list":["post-486786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-dolly-parton","tag-g-love","tag-greek-theatre","tag-jack-johnson","tag-north-shore","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-pipeline","tag-september-sessions","tag-steve-miller-band","tag-sublime","tag-surfilmusic","tag-the-cars","tag-tom-petty","tag-ucsb","tag-zach-gill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}