Words by Audra Lacey | Photos by Michael Ryan Kravetsky / Watermrk Studios

It was a perfectly sunny summer evening in the Garden State, and fans braved the notorious Parkway traffic on Sunday to hear the sweet sounds of Jack Johnson at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. What a way to celebrate Father’s Day – the sold out show found the lawn brimming with couples, families, and friends of all ages ready to float along with SURFILMUSIC, Johnson’s latest creative endeavor. 

Opening act Hermanos Gutiérrez got things going with a set of sweeping instrumentals inspired by 1950’s Latin America Sound. Sharing their own brand of twang, including the new single ‘Canto Andino’, brothers Alejandro and Estevan Gutiérrez plugged tunes from their upcoming album ‘Los Ojos Del Condor’, available September 25 via Dan Auerbach’s imprint, Easy Eye Sound.

Soon after, the lights went down, and the sound of an analog film projector clicked to signal that SURFILMUSIC was about to begin. Jack Johnson, his acoustic guitar, and his band emerged to kick it all off with early 2000’s classics ‘Mudfootball, ‘Flake’, and ‘Sitting, Waiting, Wishing’.

This tour is centered around SURFILMUSIC, a new documentary film about Johnson’s journey as both a surfer and songwriter, plus his companion double album, SURFILMUSIC Soundtrack and 4-Tracks. While the Hawaii native may have spent his formative years surfing the Pacific, his fans at the Jersey Shore have their own love story with the beach, too. The connection was definitely there – different oceans, but same spirit. Sunday’s show brilliantly blended these two passions, and the audience lapped it right up. 

There were plenty of highlights to follow, including the bouncy fan favorite ‘Bubble Toes’, which started the first of many sing-alongs of the night. In the middle of the tune, local legend / rock photographer Danny Clinch joined Johnson’s four-piece band, playing harmonica on a cover of Steve Miller Band’s ‘Take the Money and Run’. 

Later, Hermanos Gutiérrez returned to the stage to help Johnson and his band showcase songs from SURFILMUSIC Soundtrack and 4-Tracks, including their dreamy collaborative effort, ‘Hold On To The Light’. Clips from the 2002 surf film September Sessions filled the screens, starring iconic riders like Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, and Shane Dorian. Some fans sat, some fans swayed, but everyone seemed enamored with the chill vibes of the improvisational jams.

Beach balls and balloons drifted overhead as the hits kept coming – first ‘Banana Pancakes’, then ‘Upside Down’, which led into a well-placed cover of Sublime’s ‘Badfish’. To make this Father’s Day show complete, Johnson invited his son onstage to perform Jimmy Buffet’s ‘A Pirate Looks at Forty” on acoustic guitars together.

Part VH1 Storytellers, part movie soundtrack, Sunday’s show found Jack Johnson opening the storybook to his life, and sharing it with a gleeful crowd who projected nothing but pure joy right back.

Check out the trailer for SURFILMUSIC below…

TheWaster.com | New Jersey
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