Osheaga Day 2 : Jack Johnson Review

As another day comes by, and we are back at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Saint-Hélène. As we don't dare defy the rain, we pack once again our ponchos, which will be only later be used just to sit on the damped grass to rest and relax while waiting for another show to go on. Day 2 saw us running from stage to stage to see the following bands: Jamie Lidell, Matt Costa, The Kills, The Black Keys, MGMT, Gogol Bordello, The Go!Team, Duffy, Broken Social Scence, CSS, Chromeo and Jack Johnson! Yeah, not much rest but with a wide range of indie, soul, electro, rock, pop and surf music who needs rest?

Jack Johnson is what Montreal was there for. As the head of Media Relations for the festival had said, Jack Johnson is the biggest artist in Montreal right now, so it would only seem right that he would headline the closing show. A sea of blanket sitters cascaded out from the stage to the hills, and top it all off - under a rainbow.

JACK JOHNSON"Its nice to finally be here with you"

And so Jack Johnson began his long awaited and first Montreal performance. In front of a thick crowd and under summer stars Jack Johnson started off with Hope from his latest album 'Sleep through the static'. Playing along, surfing from one song to another, the crowd responded to him singing and dancing. No better setting could have Jack chosen to sing his only French/Spanish song Belle. Although he had the crowd conquered even before getting onto the stage. Jack Johnson managed to have a chit chat with his listeners and make them laugh. He mentioned his wife telling him to stop being an idiot when singing in French, and then apologized for destroying the words! When he messed up Sitting Waiting Wishing the crowd sang words before him and he had to tag along to keep up with the lyrics. As per usual Jack presented the members of his band, including pianist Zach Gill who is about to release his solo album (he is also member of the group Animal Liberation Orchestra aka ALO), of which we heard a song. On stage also was singer and friend Matt Costa who had performed earlier in the day, with whom he sang Sweet Jesus.Jack Johnson went on and on, singing non stop for more than an hour and a half, playing the guitar and making the crowd dream of waves and surf. There was no doubt of an encore and what a surprise when he invited on stage Jimmy Buffet to sing the first song he ever learned to play on his guitar: Pirate Tale. We heard everything from Banana Pancakes to Sleep Through the Statics, a rapped Staple it Together and he ended with Angel and Better Together. Jack Johnson made me and the other 18,000 people in the crowd dream of Hawaii, of beach and sun, and long for a summer that feels just started and its about to end.

Posted by Corinne Copreni