What can I say about a Jack Johnson concert in Santa Barbara? Well, it’s almost the equivalent of seeing a Grateful Dead show in San Francisco. To paraphrase Dave Brogan (who is the drummer for Animal Liberation Orchestra, the opening band): Understand you have to BE IN Santa Barbara. If you’ve never been here, be here sometime. Santa Barbara warrants a pilgrimage at least once in life. There’s no other geography like it as far as I know. Beach, estuaries and mountains all tightly bound. Best weather on the planet. Barometric pressure that is tonic for the cells. Residual energies of the Chumash natives. What is it about this place?
Well, for one, a surfer turned musician who attended UCSB, and it being the last show of a year and a half long tour, it was definitely a huge party and a sort-of homecoming.
The audience was a pretty good mix of people, but there was a large contingent of hot mom & daughter couples (my favorite), and I don’t think I’ve ever seen more old surfers with canes in one spot at the same time.
The show was filled with some of his biggest hits like “Bubble Toes”, “Good People”, “Rodeo Clowns”, and “Banana Pancakes”.
There was an absolutely beautiful rendition of probably my favorite song of his, “Brushfire Fairytales”, as well as surprises like Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” and The Beatles’ “Rocky Raccoon”, which he had trouble remembering a verse to the delight of the band and audience…
“Flake” was another highlight, and yet another song that had a couple mistakes. He had to restart it three times to get the opening lines right. The audience LOVED it when he pulled out a song from the ‘Curious George’ soundtrack called “Upside Down” as well.
And the night was full of special guests throughout the show: Seth Ford-Young and Orpheo McCord from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, skateboard legend Kelly Slater during the Jimmy Buffett song “A Pirate Looks At Forty” (I didn’t even know that he played guitar!), and Big Hats for the song that was written about him, “Mudfootball”:
“Sunday mornin’ and it’s time to go
Been rainin’ all night so everybody knows
Over to the field for tackle football
Big hits, Big Hats, yeah give me the ball
Rain is pourin’, touchdown scorin’
Keep on rollin’, never borin’
Karma, karma, karma chameleon
We’re talkin’ kinda funny from helium, well”
Definitely a fun time. He even left us with a rockin’ version of the Kinks classic “All Day And All Of The Night”. I’m pretty sure everybody left the Bowl happy.
The opening band, ALO, was born in Santa Barbara. A perfect fit for the bill at this show. The keyboardist, Zach Gill, pulled double-duty, as he is also Jack’s keyboardist. They have a very distinctive sound that blurs genres and is full of some definitely danceable grooves. I’ve been a fan of theirs for years.
If you’ve never seen Animal Liberation Orchestra, do yourself a favor and go see these guys. They are one of those yet-undiscovered gems in the California music scene, although they’ve been around for over ten years. Lebo, their guitarist, is a staple in the Bay Area music scene and I wish I lived closer up north so I could see him play more often. Simply? They need to play Southern California a whole lot more.
ALO Set-List
Speed of Dreams, Try, Wasting Time Pt.1 Falling Dominoes (w/ Adam Topol on congas/percussion), Storms & Hurricanes, Plastic Bubble Girl (w/ Jack on guitar/vocals), BBQ > Eye of the Tiger* > BBQ
*Eye of The Tiger was for Jimi Jamison, lead singer for Survivor who passed away on Monday.
