Concert Review: Jack Johnson with G. Love

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Tonight I had the pleasure of hitting up Jack Johnson‘s show at Rogers Place here in lovely Vancouver, and what a beautiful day for a Jack show I’ll tell you that much for sure. He rocked. G. Love opened for him. He rocked. Another girl whom I cannot find the name for was on before that rocked. I know, bad journalism, but she really was good. Although her last song, about her tour manager, she shouldn’t play that anymore.

I have never seen Jack Johnson before this evening, and its been way to long. He was pretty rad. I love his whole setup, curved screen, video cameras planted around the stage, great time. He was playing a slow song, just him and his guitar, and his strap came off. He stopped and picked up again after telling a story about the song. Do You Remember was the song, he told us how the piano they wanted it so bad, and they kept it anyways, even though it took up half the bedroom door. That song is one of my favorites, on possibly my favorite album.

I like hearing Jack play electric guitar. I think it’d be a fools business to dislike him for changing his style. So much more good can come from instrument changes. That being said, i do love his solo acoustic stuff. His band killed it up there. They were rock solid. The pianist Zack Gill is pretty damn awesome. He’s awesome and his style perfectly goes with Jack. I just read Adam Topol‘s bio on Jack’s, and this dudes got some cool history.

So the people were friendly, the music was extraordinary, and Jack was as good as ever. Its so cool to go to jackjohnsonmusic.com and read about all the things Jacks trying to do for the environment. I think one quote that I’ve read that sticks out in my mind is: “We want people to leave the event seeing this as the way to life, not just a novelty.” To me that has profound meaning to my life, and I congratulate Jack for putting his name to such causes. It honestly inspires me to be the better person I can.

G. Love sure played some good music too. His harmonica accompanied Jack on a few songs, which is so cool to see. Its a really nice atmosphere when the main act brings up some of the other acts to play with. I like that a lot. But G. Loves show was wicked as expected. His slide Phillie bred blues style music is something I really dig. He even pulled out the slide for a song or two.

If you can, hit up this tour. Jack is on his game, better than ever and its an extreme pleasure and inspiring to hear this show. I wish I knew the opener so I could give her some credit too. She came out for a while to play a uke song with Jack, which was totally cool. She threw in some crazy awesomeness in the song. I love a good Uke!

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Richmond Night Market, BC

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The Richmond Night Market is completely what one would expect from a chinese market, except its catered to those folks who go out at night. So, one should expect a slightly more carnival feel to the market.

Upon entering into the market, one feels like they may have just snuck in the back door, but no, its really the entrance. There is no glorious sign exclaiming: “Welcome to the Infamous Richmond Night Market” in bold letters. Instead, you are greeted with the steady glow of excessive lighting, plastic filled stands, and people ever where.

It is very similar to a flea market, except there is no flea’ing. At the flea markets there are usually a few tables with new gadgets, each individually wrapped in their clear plastic shells; stuff you really don’t need, but are oohhh so cool. For instance, they had these tripods, that were mini tripods. Probably no bigger than a foot tall, fully extended. Something like that could really come in handy at times…

The real reason why people go to the market is the food, and let me tell you, it was splendid. I basically turned off all instinct to be thrifty and bought as much as I wanted. I ate squid, octopus tentacles, chicken, and duck neck to name a few. Before I knew it my cash reserves were nearly depleted, and we had to run to the bank machine to get some flow.

Parking was an interesting thing. If you drive right into the market, you can park for 5$ in their parking lots, or you can park before you turn onto the main road where the market is and park for free, but this comes with a walk that some aren’t willing to make. If you arrive after midnight, you can park right along the main street for free. One should be weary though, for this parking is known, and starts to fill up right as the clock strikes 12.

I’m glad that I finally made it to the night market. Although, I must say, I expected something similar to  china town during the new years celebration, but instead, I was greeted with an expensive taste testing event, with random tables filled with random things that I really didn’t need.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly suggest that you do, so that you can say you were at the world renowned Richmond Night Market, and this way you can judge for yourself how much you enjoy it. I would be really interested to hear how all of you find the experience!

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Band of Skulls @ Venue, Vancouver BC

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I had the ultimate pleasure of seeing the Band of Skulls preform at Venue, downtown Vancouver BC on Sunday night. It was an awesome show. As of late, I’ve been trying to focus on my own thing and not go to as many concerts as I’m used to for sometimes one has to focus more on creating than being influenced. Sometimes the balance is needed.

The Venue is a nice and small venue, newly done over from whatever it was before, I forget now. I thought the sound could have been turned up, but thats just me..

To open up the show was a band called Saint Motel. They ruled. They are a band from California who could rock and had character. Really fit the bill, sometimes you get opening bands that are kinda not all good, but these guys were rocking. Check them out any where and any chance you can get. They had this totally cool video on repeat in the background, clearly they put in some time to make it, it had a bunch of vancouver references. It was very sexual in content, which increased desire! Their drummer really killed it with some amazing drumming. I thought he was spot on the whole night.

The second opening band was Silver Starling. They are from Montreal, and at least one of the members is from the group Arcade Fire, Marika Anthony-Shaw I believe. Marcus Paquin could really sing and did present a lot of leadership on the stage.  Check out their bio on the page listed. Pretty cool webpage. They rocked, and truly did give me the feeling of an Arcade Fire-esque influenced band, but this is to be expected, since they do play the same scene… somewhat.. or did… Listen and tell me what you think?

The main event. Band of Skulls . These guys rocked. Came out, put together a great show. I read an article on the show, and the guy was complaining that ‘once they get more professional, they wont find the need to turn their backs to the crowd’ bullshit. Me, I dig that, it means their really trying to groove together, their really feeling it. Russell Marsden was frequently playing with his amps feedback, trying to get it right, and wammying away with splendor like a guitar hero he will go down as.

Emma Richardson just plain out rocks. Her voice is just as beautiful as Russell’s is but more controlled. Russell seems to have more finesse if you will. But Emma is like what you’d expect a Ramones sister to be like: tall, long black hair with bangs in the front, and a seemingly shy or sublime demeanor to her.

In fact, they both had that feeling to them. Russell was singing through his hair the whole night, but this did not effect their show at all. In fact, it was great to hear some awesome music coming out of the speakers. Like I said before, I wish they would have turned it up.

I was standing right next to the stage the whole night, right by where all the commotion of set-up/take-down went on, so it was kind of fun to see all the band members scurry around setting up, breaking down the set. I’m a musician so I like to see how they do their thing.

I found that all three bands I was wanting them to play more songs. Keep on going, extend the songs, do a freek out solo, etc. etc. But thats just me.

All in all, it was a great Show. I’ve seen a lot here in Vancouver, and this one is one of the cool ones. All three bands impressed me, I had real close seats, only for a few songs there was an annoying girl beside me flinging her hair stupidly so that it would hit me, but I made it known I would appreciate her to move the hell away from me. I think the boyfriend knew I was annoyed and he kind of dragged her to the side after a while.

I always wonder if a band looks out at the crowd and gets to know the people directly around them. I guess in the end were all human aren’t we?

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