CONCERT REVIEW
Jack Johnson impresses in mellow fashion

The wall-to-wall crowd at Pipeline Café soaks up Jack Johnson's mellow and low-key music. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

If you closed your eyes and imagined sinking your toes into warm Laniakea sand while summer waves lapped gently in the background, Jack Johnson's sold-out homecoming show last night at Pipeline Café might've seemed a lot like being at a North Shore beach barbecue.

Hawai'i-born Jack Johnson took the stage just past 9 p.m. to begin his sold-out concert. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

Johnson emerged slowly onto the stage — with drummer /percussionist Adam Topol and bassist Merlo Podlewski — at just past 9 p.m. wearing a loose green T-shirt and faded jeans, looking rested and a bit nervous. Quickly picking up his guitar, he smiled and launched into an opening number whose identity I immediately lost among the screams of the stagefront crowd around me.

From then on, Johnson tried to heed the gentle slacker warning that introduces the chorus of one of his best compositions, "Inaudible Melodies" ("Slow down, everyone. You're moving too fast."), and put on a sly charmer of a show that impressed with its dearth of excess.

Much has been said in the Mainland music press about Johnson's stage presence ranging from a bit too low-key to non-existent, and his show's pacing being a tad too mellow. Which made me wonder exactly what kind of on-stage behavior was expected from a mostly soft-spoken singer/songwriter/guitarist known for his breezy acoustic meldings of blues-rock, folk and reggae. Stage diving, perhaps?

Bravo to Johnson for hewing close to his relaxed, genial personality and letting the music and lyrics that his fans came to hear take center stage in much the same backyard-jam style they were recorded. For much of the hour I was at the show (press deadlines required an early departure), Johnson simply closed his eyes, strummed his acoustic guitar, sang, and swayed side to side, his concentration solely on his set.

Was his performance mellow and low-key? Extremely, yes. But mellow and low-key to the point of somnambulism? Hardly.

In all honesty, though, I couldn't help but think that Johnson's fans would've probably been better served soaking in his relaxed, surf-and-sand atmospherics in a more spacious outdoor, post-sunset-warmed Waikiki Shell. Pipeline Café's densely packed and noisy environs left much of Johnson's between-song patter — and even some of his lyrics — largely sailing over the heads of patrons toward the back of the room. With the sound mix turned down a bit too low for a crowd that size, folks in back were still overheard loudly voicing their displeasure mid-show.

It was hardly the intimate setting Johnson was likely hoping for.

Still, most of Johnson's audience — which had snapped up all of the tickets to his show in a mere two hours last month — seemed happy to follow the Hawai'i-born singer's easygoing mantra, singing along word-for-word to almost every song. Despite the crowding, poor sight lines and excessive noise, the gathered was mostly content to sway, bounce and drink in what music they could hear — eyes closed — like ice water on a warm summer night.

Johnson's set list featured an even mix of hits from his 2-million selling 2001 debut CD "Brushfire Fairytales" and its recently-released follow-up "On And On." Among the show's highlights early on were "Fortunate Fool," "Fall Line," "Wasting Time" and a sweet interpretation of "Sexi Plexi" mixed with a couple of verses of Paul Simon's "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard."

"I'm gonna leave that part to you from now on," a smiling Johnson told the crowd when its loud singing of "Bubble Toes' " "la-da-da-da-da-da" chorus drowned his own voice.

Johnson told The Advertiser last month that he was hoping to stage a large outdoor music benefit/festival on O'ahu this winter for a few similarly laid-back Mainland and local bands and himself. Couldn't get tickets to last night's Pipeline show? Don't worry. Johnson's best hometown show — from an audience-comfort perspective, at least — is likely still to come.