Jack Johnson brought his To the Sea Tour into Indy on Friday night with a stop at the Verizon Wireless Music Center. The easygoing singer/songwriter delivered one laid-back groove after another, and provided a truly outstanding show, perfect for a midsummer’s night.
Although he started his career solely as an acoustic guitar player, the electric guitar has gradually worked its way into Johnson’s arsenal of songs. As a result, his live shows have greatly improved thanks to the newfound variety of moods and dynamics. His electric skills were on full display with a cool solo during “Go On,” as well a couple of the louder tracks off his new album, such as “To The Sea,” and “At or With Me.”
Even with the newfound changes, Johnson still kept things mellow with older fan favorites such as “Banana Pancakes,” “Taylor,” “Wasting Time,” and others. He also threw in a few interesting cover choices, from The Cars to Bob Marley to Steve Miller Band.
The thing that impressed me the most, though, was how willing he was to share the stage with the talent around him. Each member of his band, as well as the supporting acts, was given a chance to show off his or her considerable talents at some point throughout the show. Johnson’s primary sidekick, Zach Gill, played piano, keyboards, melodica, and accordion, and effortlessly handled backing vocals duty, as well. Merlo Podlewski played bass and backing guitar, and took the mic to rap a verse in “Staple It Together.” Opener G. Love was brought on stage to sing “Rodeo Clowns” and lend his guitar and harmonica-playing abilities to several other songs. ALO guitarist Dan Leibowitz was on stage playing the slide guitar for perhaps my favorite segment of the show, a two song set of “Flake” and the Steve Miller Band classic, “The Joker.” Hawaiian singer Paula Fuga sang beautiful backing vocals on “Turn Your Love,” and “Better Together,” and even sang her own song, “Country Road.”
Johnson’s show feels like a true community, and to drive the point home, he’s donating 100% of the profits from this tour to various charities. Friday night, he gave us a wonderfully mellow show for a perfectly relaxing, fun summer night.
Jack Johnson’s setlist:
- You and Your Heart
- If I Had Eyes
- Taylor
- Sitting, Waiting, Wishing (with a verse from “Just What I Needed” by The Cars)
- To The Sea
- Go On
- Upside Down
- Red Wine, Mistakes, Mythology
- Bubble Toes (with a verse from “Mellow Mood” by Bob Marley)
- Wasting Time
- Breakdown
- My Little Girl
- Turn Your Love (with Paula Fuga)
- Country Road (with Fuga)
- Flake (with ALO’s Dan Leibowitz on slide guitar)
- The Joker (with Leibowitz)
- Banana Pancakes
- Mud Football
- Rodeo Clowns (with G. Love on vocals and guitar)
- Staple It Together (with G. Love on harmonica, and a rap from Merlo Podlewski)
- At or With Me
- Encore: Do You Remember
- Angel
- Better Together (with G. Love, ALO, and Paula Fuga)
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