By Review by Kate Hennessy
JACK JOHNSON
Opera House forecourt, November 30
★★★
Hawaii's Jack Johnson swings out on crutches to the first of three sold-out Sydney shows. "So I've screwed up my knee pretty good," he says. "But I don't play guitar with my knee."
Jack Johnson performs at the Sydney Opera House forecourt on November 30.Credit: Kim Johnson
Some may think Johnson's low-key, mid-tempo, very soft rock would be more interesting if he did. Even unimpeachable likeability is polarising, it turns out.
But those people are not here. Neither are the mildly curious. One doesn't hustle for a Jack Johnson ticket hoping to see something unforeseen.
Johnson knows this better than anyone. After telling us he'll be taking requests, fans keep hollerin' for his 2005 hit Better Together, so eventually Johnson explains how set lists work. He can't play Better Together yet because "y'all would pack up and go home". He'll play it at the end so "the couples can make out then".
The band is minimal: a bloke apiece on piano, bass and drums. The staging is simple, too; a look a home-interiors magazine would call "nautical-inspired with a splash of coastline".
All the right things happen during a persistently pleasant two-hour show. No classic is left unplayed and the band proves itself capable of puffing up and out into jam-band rock.
The best moment is the most surprising, however. After Johnson thrice misfires the lyrics to a very lovely No Other Way, a melodica segues into a verse from I Would for You by Jane's Addiction.
He is in his element upon returning for a solo encore, reeling out every intimate inch of the mellow good humour for which he's adored.
Ultimately, it feels good to like this very good guy. A guy who donated 100 per cent of the money from two tours to saving the world's oceans. A guy who plays Upside Down (from the Curious George soundtrack) early in the night "in case anyone brought their kids". A guy who is so undistracted by his artistic ego that he asks permission – permission! – to play new songs.
Yet it is true, too, that Johnson's songs do not in themselves transform into anything bigger or better live. The beauty, rather, is marinating in his mellow presence and knowing it will later infuse songs that will find moments of perfect sync not in a shared setting with thousands of strangers singing off key, but when you are coastal and carefree yourself.
Jack Johnson plays two more sold-out shows at the Opera House forecourt on Friday (December 1) and Saturday (December 2).