By Roisin Burke
Hawaiian singer-songwriter Jack Johnson brought his distinctive music to the Marquee last night to the delight of every couple in Cork and beyond who descended on the fairgrounds for a romantic evening in the big blue tent.
Known for his slushy songs such as ‘Better together,’ Jack Johnson reeled off a number of soft melodic tracks that had the hand-holding crowd swaying side to side from start to finish.
The crowd was warmed up by Wexford twins, Ashley and Brandon, who go by the name of The Ocelots.’
The pair did a fine job of getting the crowd ready for the main act, but there was no distracting the audience from their real reason for being there; Jack Johnson love songs.
The man of the moment came on stage at 8.30pm and played straight through for two hours without so much as breaking into a sweat.
Classic singsong ‘Do you remember?’ was pulled out early enough followed by a lesser-known number, so much less known that Jack himself forgot the lyrics, a couple of times.
Bouncing back strong, Jack moved onto ‘Sitting Waiting Wishing’ which quickly brought the crowd back on side.
A highlight of the night happened early as Jack meshed a verse of The Cranberries song ‘Linger’ into a song.
It was a mercurial performance packed with mellow, basey, music that had the many couples in the room bathed in romantic notions.
More than a few times, members of the audience roared for the very well-known track ‘Better together’ which Jack said would be left until everyone was hot and sweaty from the tent.
Speaking about Ireland Mr Johnson recounted his time spent here surfing and recording surfing videos as well as writing songs here.
Bringing variety to the night, Jack played a new record called ‘My mind is for sale’ which deals with Donald Trump being president in America.
The American artist also played songs about his family, his kids and his wife but it was the big numbers that everyone was waiting for and when he pulled ‘Banana Pancakes’ and Good People’ out of the bag, the audience went wild.
The chanting was loud, the couples clung close and the tent could not have been hotter or sweatier.
The encore included a rendition of 'Home', which Jack said he played as a thank you to everyone for making him feel so welcome and then the last song of the night was the one we were all waiting for ‘Better together.’
“Hope you had a great time tonight, I had a lot of fun with you,” Jack said to the crowd before disappearing offstage and the crowd roared their approval.
