Garden Party...

On Wednesday night I went to see Jack Johnson play at
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN!

It was absolutely brilliant.

I think it might be the 5th time I've seen Jack Johnson play, each time the gigs have been very different and in completely different venues, from Shepherds Bush Empire to outdoors in Hyde Park and now in the middle of Manhattan.

I was a little further back from the stage compared to the KT Tunstall gig, I defintely couldn't see the whites of their eyes, but I think I was in a good position for the speakers - there was no echo or anything, all the bands sounded great.

As usual Jack brought his Brushfire Records friends along with him as the support acts. ALO performed first, I missed their first couple of songs as they started at 7pm, but they were brilliant - I think they're one of those bands who are a bit better live than they are on their albums. They covered Eye of The Tiger in the middle of one of their own songs - it was great.

Then G.Love did a solo acoustic set, he played one instrumental song that was about 10 minutes long, it was beautiful and felt quite celtic, I think he's got a new album coming out so maybe it's one there?

Then the main event - Mister Jack Johnson took to the stage...

The crowd were SO loud, I loved being at the back being able to see everyone dancing and clapping, the whole arena were singing along to his songs and dancing around, it was such a friendly warm atmosphere - I've noticed that at all his gigs, everyone seems to be so happy.

He played a lot of his new stuff which sounded fantastic and a lot cheerier than the stuff from his last album, a lot more electric guitar and big chorus's, lots of sing-a-long songs. He played a lot of his older stuff too, and he made changes to some of the songs, making them sound new again - it was absolutely brilliant.

Unfortunately, as I was so far back, all my photos just look a bit like a glowing white box in a sea of black, so I took some little videos instead. At the end of playing Taylor, they went into covering the Joker...

This was one his new ones, At Or With Me...



For the finale, he invited everyone who had played that night back up on stage, so the whole of ALO, G.Love and a singer from Hawaii called Paula Fuga (she sung a couple of songs with Jack earlier on - she's got a lovely voice), and they sang a new version of Better Together...



It was a blummin' brilliant gig and very nice treat for the middle of the week.