If anyone can be mellow in a rockin’ kind of way, it’s good ol’ Jack Johnson. While Katalyst gave us fresh beats and classic re-vamped dance funk during the interludes, Jack and his support provided an awesome show in Centennial Park.

First to take the stage was G. Love & Special Sauce. And there was not an ounce of sadness as G. Love sat in his plastic picnic chair, swaying his knees and strumming on his glitter blue guiter.
He worked the crowd wonderfully with his harmonica performances and fresh hip-hop attitude mixed in with a bit of southern flavour. The rain that payed us a visit halfway through his performance definitely didn’t put a dampener on things. He managed to rock out with tunes such as Rainbow and Booty Call. The people were definitely receptive to his onstage presence.

Donovan Frankenreiter was up next, and although his performance was slightly slow at times, he managed to hold the crowds attention with his funky pimp/cowboy outfit and some well loved tunes. Call Me Papa, Our Love and Make You Mine went down a treat, but it was It Don’t Matter that was the universal favourite. For this musical splendour, he presented the crowd with veteran surfer, Tom Curren, who shared guitar duties with Donovan on that particular track.

Who could possible not be mesmerised by a performance from Xavier Rudd? This Australian has proven himself to be one of our greatest musical talents time and time again, and this set was no exception.

His humble shyness and modesty merely serves as an asset for his ability as as a musical performer. It wouldn’t be surprising if you were told that he could play five instruments with his pinky finger alone. From the time he opened with his now famous track, Let Me Be to the rhythmic didge, guitar and stomp box sounds of GBA and head-bopping tune Conceal Me, the audience were in awe. A one man show could not have possibly been any better.

But no one could’ve stolen the limelight from Jack Johnson. Ear muffs would’ve been a good idea because only the roar of the crowd could be heard at the mere sight of him when he first walked out onto the stage.

Jack was probably the most laidback musician of them all and it was his relaxed attitude that drew 20 000 people to watch this beautiful musician. While he performed most of his popular tracks from his two previous albums like Bubble Toes, Flake, Horizon Has Been Defeated and Taylor, it was the songs performed from his newest album In Between Dreams, that he provided for the crowd with more vigour. Good People, Banana Pancakes and Sitting, Waiting, Wishing were such tracks. But you should’ve heard the crowd roar when Xavier joined him for Breakdown and that was just the beginning of help from his support acts. Bringing out Donovan Frankenreiter to perform the song they recorded together, Free; G. Love, again, became an awesome spectacle when he joined Jack to perform on their hit single Rodeo Clowns; but the best installment was Jack, G. Love and Donovan performing Mudfootball. Never before have I felt so much energy from the stage! G. Love belted out a harmonica solo, while Donovan had a dabble with his guitar and Jack just lead them all to perfection.
The mellowed out encore was a treat in itself, where Jack Johnson performed solo. His last song was Better Together, a sweet song with a personal flavour that we were lucky enough to experience first hand.

Thanks Jack and support for an awesome show. You guys couldn’t have pulled it off any better.