Jack Johnson Concert

It's been over a week since the concert and I am still flying high over the amazing performance. Seriously... that was the MOST awesome, fantabulous concert I've ever been to. Absolutely incredible.

Before I left to drive down to the venue I called and asked about the camera policy. I clearly asked if I could bring my SLR camera (Nikon D40) and was told I could, no problem - just no professional equipment. Of course when I got to the door and they checked my bag, I was told it wasn't allowed and had to take it back to my car. Dang it!  Yep, I was pretty pissed.  I wish I'd borrowed my point-and-shoot back from my mother, but oh well. So I was left with my Palm Pre camera phone instead.  (See the rest of my concert photos on Flickr.)

Ok, back to the amazing part!

At the Gazebo when you walk into the venue I came upon a little pre-concert entertainment by G Love and Paula Fuga ... and apparently later an appearance by Jack himself (but I missed it). And ALO was on stage before G Love to open the show and get the crowd warmed up - they were pretty good too!  (BTW - I've been intrigued with Paula's music since last week. Loving her stuff!)

So why was the concert so great? 

Because it was less like a normal concert and more like a jam session that just happened to have an audience. Jack and his band along with G Love and some of the guys from ALO just hung out on stage, playing their music and having a blast all on their own. Some of the amazing songs that I've loved all along were made so much better because of the passionate way they were performed. A 3-minute song would be extended to 10 or 15 minutes because the artists would get caught up in the fun of the music and just stop mid-song and go into a mini jam session with the instruments. It felt like they guys on stage were just there to hang out and play music and jam together .... while the audience looked on and had a glimpse into what their real world was like. It was absolutely inspiring to me. I loved it so much!

One more thing that I was awed about was the graphics. The graphic designer in me was inspired.

So behind the band there was this huge wall - the bottom 1/3 was a wood-plank wall that set the tone for the show. Very beachy and sort of "weather-worn" looking. Above this wooden portion was a massive screen and all throughout the show there were rotating graphics and live video. 

Cameras were set up around the stage area so some of the time you'd see billboard-size live video of Jack Johnson or members of the band (like in the photo here). But a lot of the time there was rotating graphics or video that reminded me of music-video type stuff. Sometimes graphics, sometimes textures, sometimes abstract moving video. Who knows... maybe this type of thing is normal for concerts these days, but I don't go to concerts often enough to know. But nonetheless, I was inspired by this whole world of graphic design that I never knew existed and I was mesmorized by the screen show just as much as I was amazed with the concert itself.

So I bought a t-shirt! And I'm going to wear it to work today (love Casual Days). I'll take a pic and share.

If you have the chance to see a Jack Johnson concert (or G Love or ALO or Paula Fuga) -- GO!  It's worth the price of admission and you'll be singing the songs for weeks go come.

~Pam