Jack Johnson keeps it real

By Angela Campbell

If you want to determine what kind of personality someone has, just look at their shoes. The flip-flops that Jack Johnson was sporting on Sunday night tell the whole story.

At the Activity Programming Board's Meet-and-Greet prior to the concert in Leavey, a handful of people, got to meet Johnson and Mason Jennings face-to-face. A quick look at his shoes, even before he opened his mouth, was all I needed to know. Flip-flops embody the laid-back personality. Not so laid-back that he seemed unapproachable and didn't care about you. It was the, "Hi, I'm a laid-back but welcoming person," kind of flip-flops.

The atmosphere was very casual, and Johnson and Jennings seemed comfortable just settling down in the middle of us on the bleachers signing our posters and answering our questions.

Johnson started out by telling us how he used to be able to take one of his front teeth out. After a surfing accident he was missing his two front teeth. He was laughing as he tilted his head back and showed us the metal rod that held the tooth in place.

It was also interesting to see how Johnson and Jennings interacted with each other. Johnson was talking about when he and Jennings first met. Johnson gave Jennings a little sample of some of the songs he wrote and sang and anxiously waited by the phone.

"It was like when you give a girl your phone number and you go home and wonder when she's going to call - if she's ever going to call. I found myself waiting for Mason's phone call to tell me if he wanted to work with me," he said.

In an effort to impress him, I tried to pretend that I knew a little something about surfing. He told me that he still surfed a lot and even made Jennings try it with him at Myrtle Beach recently. It was his first time and he did quite well. I think Johnson was a little disappointed to learn that I had actually only been surfing once and couldn't stand up for longer than five seconds.

As my sacred time with Johnson drew to a close, it was almost comforting to hear that he was getting nervous about playing the concert. It was just good to know that despite all of this publicity, which will probably increase in months to come, it hadn't gone to Johnson head.

I didn't think that I would ever have the chance to tell Johnson that he would do fine tonight, and not to worry about it.

And he didn't have to worry about it. The crowd was a little unsure of Jennings at the beginning of his opening, but they warmed up pretty quickly.

When Johnson came out, introduced by APB's Ryan Egge, the crowd's energy was incredible. The music was chill, the audience was made up of both old fans that new all the words and sang along and people that became fans that very night. It was amazing not only in the fact that Johnson is an amazing musician, but that he was at Santa Clara. APB gave Santa Clara an impressive concert to boast about. It's only the beginning.