"Yeah! I went!"
To tell you the truth, I know only a few Jack Johnson songs. My younger brother, Jose, is a HUUUUUUGE JJ fan, so in between me blasting Oasis and Interpol and whatever else may have caught my fancy....he plays Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, and whatever else has got his fancy. It's cool that way. I listen to what he's listening to, and vice versa.
So, when Jack Johnson announced the Kokua Festival, Jose was rightfully stoked, and he began to make arrangements to get tickets. With people like Willie Nelson, Ben Harper...yeah, those tickets were going to fly. I asked if I could tag along. He also bought a few extra b/c he was going to ebay them. Pretty cool.
So, it's me, Jose, my friend Becky headed out to Waikiki Shell one mildly drizzling afternoon. Parking was heinous, but it was alright! We got to the Shell, and we heard ALO playing. NUTS! We entered just as Zach Gill and his gang was singing "Barbeque." It's happy sounding, but the lyrics are pretty deep. Jose made me replay it to hear them...
And in this life we're free to dream what ever we want to
But that doesn't mean that your dreams are gonna come true
Instead as a way of getting us to move
Life dangles your dreams in front of you
And unable to resist the temptation
We continue
....
Welcome to your Barbecue
Where we roast all the dreams that never came true
Welcome to your Barbecue
Pig out and dream a new
So, it sucked that we couldn't see ALO live. NEXT YEAR. C'mon!
The next act was Paula Fuga and the One Love 'Ohana Band. They had a bit of a hiccup with her mic at the beginning, but I loved her. She had great prescence and a lovely soulful voice. I thought she was great. It was kinda cool too, though. Afterwards, she was sitting in my section. Oh...which I forgot to mention!....Jose got seats that were 5th row!!!! That made it awesome...
Anyway Paula was right on. I think after her was, Henry Kapono, but in between the breaks me and Becky had gone to get food. Jose wanted a pretzel and a drink, and I wanted a margarita(which are too expensive, let me say). Becky got a chili dog and was like, eating it while I was in line for a margarita. Looong line, but I was listening to Kapono's set. He pulled a Hendrix at the beginning playing the Hawaiian National Anthem like Hendrix played the American National Anthem at Woodstock. It was meaaaaan. Finally got my margarita(which was like, liquid!!!!), but only caught the last song of Kapono's set, which was very very rock n roll-ish. Not what I expected, but it was cool.
By this point, another friend Sharilyn arrived before Ben Harper's set. Man, I can honestly say, I don't know a lot of Harper's stuff. I can say now that I'm going to jump on it! He did an acoustic set with a member of his band, The Innocent Criminals. I know the guy was new to the band, but I don't remember his name. He was great on the guitar, and bald. It was good music. Nice and groovy.
Just an aside note, when Becky and I were walking in, we noticed a LOT of haoles aka, white people/tourists. Not that I have anything against white people. It just seemed odd to me. It was like midaged folks too...Totally rad, man. Willie Nelson & the Planetary Bandits took the stage next and they were incredible. Very solid. The haoles were all dancing and stuff. They were all in the front. In my section there was this cowgirl chick dancing in front trying to get Willie's attention and sign her book. It was hilarious. We (me, Jose, Shari, Becky, and the ladies behind us) got a kick out of it. Needless to say, she became a source of amusement.
Anyway. Admittedly, I only know, like, 3 Willie Nelson songs. He sang "Beer for my Horses," "On The Road Again," and "Always on my Mind," and the rest I didn't know. The saxophonist, I thought, was incredible. The had this young guitarist dressed with a bandana around his head, and dressed in a white suit who was incredible on the guitar. He sang/played this song called "Floodin' In Texas" or something like that. Very enjoyable and impressive. I got pretty excited when Willie sang "Always on my mind." It was great...
THEN....Jack Johnson!!!
This was great. Jose was soooo excited. I was too, I had another margarita...frozen! Woo! I was feeling good. It was admittedly stronger than the other one. Which made it better, haha.
Anyway, it was incredibly cool. While they were setting up for Jack's stage, I was like, excited. Zach's on my side of the stage!!!!!! So, haha. It was an awesome set, even though it was raining! Best bit was when they performed "Banana Pancakes" which includes the lyric, "Can't you see that it's been raining.."when it was. A totally cool moment. There was a good vibe going through the crowd. Jack played a lot of his hits, "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing," "Banana Pancakes," "Taylor," "Breakdown," and "Flake!"
He did Flake with Ben Harper. Incredible. Jack brought on Paula Fuga, and I forget what song they did. THEN he brought on Damien Marley who is performing at the Shell today (4/23/2006). They did "Welcome to Jamrock." Man, that was sooo cool. Paula sounded great. Jack also brought on Kawika, who was Emcee'ing the event, and Kapono. Then, Jack and Ben had a little bit of an acoustic set, before bringing Willie Nelson on for a song to close the evening.
Overall it was a sweet experience. Just disappointed that I missed ALO! Plus, after sitting that close up front, I highly doubt I'll take a seat in the back, especially if it will be for an artist that I really want to see. Then again, if I am broke, I'd opt to barbeque outside.
Good stuff. Hopefully, I will be back next year!
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