‘Saturday Night Live” has lam pooned Jack Johnson’s laid-back style, and there are entire Web forums devoted to explaining “why he sucks,” but any of the 18,000 fans at Madison Square Garden Wednesday would tell Johnson’s detractors that “they just don’t know Jack.”
So, instead of trashing Johnson’s simple, stoned-Buddha philosophy — where love is always the answer, which is annoying to most New Yorkers — he should get some praise for a mellow show that played like a campfire singalong rather than a rock concert.
This was a low-tech event where the Hawaiian surfer-turned-songwriter had water scenes projected on a single curved video screen behind him during the two-hour set. The upbeat tunes were mostly mellow with hints of blues and occasional reggae rhythms. While Johnson’s retro singer-songwriter soft-rock style is out of pop music vogue, the fans at this performance cheered in their seats.
The concert opened with Johnson’s “You and Your Heart” — the big single from his new record, “To the Sea.” Like many Johnson songs, it has a likable, whistleable melody. Afterward, Johnson worked his entire catalog, switching back and forth between acoustic and electric six-string, and even showed his pineapple roots by playing ukulele for the tune “Breakdown.”
Most sat (and wiggled) along to songs for a set that didn’t quite rock, except when he covered the Steve Miller classic “The Joker,” yet there was a subdued energy. Johnson’s strum ‘n’ hum style is just a little too small for the Garden. The essential qualities in a Jack Johnson performance are intimacy and sincerity, and those are tough qualities to project to the nosebleed sections closer to the rafters than the stage.
Early in the show, soft-spoken Johnson asked, “Were any of you at my gig at the Mercury Lounge when I threw up onstage?” Only one fan screamed out regarding the 2001 gig, but it was a reminder that the tiny Lower East Side venue is of a better size to connect with this music.
Still, throughout the night’s generous 26-song set, the lyrics demonstrated Johnson is a sensitive guy with a gentle voice and attitude; when you top that off with his scruffy, surfer-dude good looks, it’s easy to understand why this show was so appreciated by the predominately female audience.