The opening act was Tristan Prettyman, who shares the track “Beautiful” on the most recent G. Love album. Her set was good, surprisingly entertaining. She had quite a few fans in the crowd also.

Here’s the set list from G. Love as I noted it…

First Set
I-76
Holla
Give It To You
Booty Call / Do It In The Road (Beatles)
Blues Music / Walk On The Wild Side (Lou Reed) / Can I Kick It (A Tribe Called Quest w/guest MC Jabu from Ozomatli)
Garbage Man
Hot Cookin’
Steppin’ Stone (w/guest Brodeeva)
Kick Drum (w/guest Brodeeva)
Milk And Cereal (w/guest Brodeeva)
Cold Beverage / Sanford & Son Theme Song (w/guest Brodeeva)

Second Set
Rainbow
Give Me Some Lovin’
Blackbird (Beatles, w/guest Brodeeva)
Beautiful
Roaches
Rodeo Clowns
Baby’s Got Sauce
Can’t Go Back To Jersey

Finally! The show that Mel and I have been waiting for. G. Love & Special Sauce live! Neither of us have ever seen him and we jumped at the tickets when we saw that he was coming to town. I’ve been a fan for 10+ years, and Mel had no choice but to dig his music since I play it constantly. I really wanted to sneak my Canon point-and-shoot into the show, but it would have been tough. I didn’t bring my phone (w/camera) with me so no camera phone shots either.

Marc Broussard opened up the show. We got there late and only saw the last 3 or 4 songs of his… but, we enjoyed his stuff a lot. We’ve only heard a few of his songs here and there. But, we’ll be checking more of his stuff out for sure. This guy has got soul!

We made our way down to the main floor and waited for the curtains to re-open. He opened with “Can’t Go Back To Jersey” and immediately got the crowd going. I must say that we noticed that the fans farther back with us, and in the back were waaay more into the show than the people up front. The show was full of energy and everyone around us was groovin’.

Here’s a list of songs I remember from the show. I’m sure that I’m missing some, and they aren’t exactly in proper order… so, let’s not call this a set list.

Main set
Can’t Go Back To Jersey
Missing My Baby
Don’t Drop It
Back Of The Bus
Booty Call
This Ain’t Living
Waiting
Dreamin’
Rock And Roll
Let The Music Play

Encore set
Still Hangin’ Around
Rainbow
Beautiful
Blues Music
Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wildside
WAR’s Low Rider (Money Mark joined on keyboards)
Cold Beverage (medley with Snoop Dogg’s Gin And Juice / A Tribe Called Quest’s Can I Kick It)
Astronaut
Instrumental jam with G. Love on harmonica

Highlights of the show for me: The crowd sing-a-long on “Rainbow”… almost made up for Jack Johnson not sitting in. All the covers in the encore set. We both were hoping for Ben Harper to sing on “Let The Music Play”, but only Marc Broussard came out. The song was great live!

After the show, we went back inside to get a t-shirt and a hat. We walked around upstairs a bit and as we passed the bar, Mel said to me “um, don’t you want to go meet him?”. I said “huh, who, what?” and turned around to see Garrett leaning up against the bar… girls hangin all over him. I waited patiently until all the girls finished taking photos with him. He saw that I was hangin out waiting. He was on his way outside but stopped to shake my hand and accept my compliments on the fun show. I thanked him for all of his fun music and the fantastic show. Sure, he’s not going to remember me, but I’ll remember him stopping to say hello.

We left on a high for sure.

Melanie and I had a fun time at The Greek. We didn’t want to get stuck in the stacked parking, so we parked down the hill and hiked to/from the show. It was only a 15 minute putt up/down the hill so it was worth it to not get jammed in all the cars leaving the show.

Here’s the set list:
Set I:
• Both Sides Of The Gun
• Don’t Take That Attitude To Your Grave
• Steal My Kisses
• Get It Like You Like It
• Ground On Down
• Waiting For You
• Morning Yearning
• Please Me Like You Want To
• Diamonds On The Inside
• Forgiven
• Black Rain
• With My Own Two Hands/War

Encore I:
• Waiting On An Angel
• I Shall Not Walk Alone
• There Will Be A Light
• Lifeline

Encore II:
• Burn One Down
• Better Way

Our next concerts are coming up next month. The Sunsplash Reggae Fest at Irvine Meadows (Verizon Wireless Amphitheater) on 9/2…. and then G. Love & Special Sauce at the House Of Blues in Anaheim on 9/23. Stoked to see G. Love… we’ve not seen him play live before either.

The line was around the corner by the time we got in it. One good reason for getting actual tickets mailed to you (not printed from your computer) is that small venues like the El Rey apparently take longer to verify all the self-printed tickets. So, since we had actual tickets, we were sent to the front of the line and got in within 10 minutes of the doors opening. We got a few drinks and settled on a good spot on a step beside the the dance floor about 20 feet away from the stage. The crowd had a mellow vibe as everyone seemed to be anxious for the show to start. With no opening act, we waited over an hour for the show to start.

The guitar tech plugged in Ben’s lap slide guitar, strummed a few strings and walked off… this created a buzz, bouncing and floating around the room. Everyone knew it was set to go and began cheering. The band took the stage and Ben ran out and they broke into a few new songs from the upcoming new album. Overall, they played a great mix of old as well as new songs. I can’t wait to pick up the new CD next month to hear the new material again.

The audience was great and Ben and the band appeared to truly soak it in. At one point, Ben told the crowd that they were the best fans in the world. He made it a point to thank the crowd many times, and the crowd returned the love even more.

A decent opening set that included a reggae version of “Steal My Kisses” that smoothly segued into the Toots classic “Pressure Drop”. The first encore was Ben with an acoustic guitar. The place came to a hush and the crowd could be heard singing along on “Roses From My Friends”. I was thinking it was a short encore, but the audience was not about to let them go just yet. The entire band returned and played a second encore that could have been a live set on it’s own. A few songs in, Ben welcomed a friend to the stage… Marc Ford from The Black Crowes jammed with them for the remainder of the show. He played amazingly and made the night that much better.

The vibe was pure electricity for the whole show, but even more so for the last 6 or 7 songs. The band lined up to take their bows… but the crowd did not let up… they all went back to their instruments and played “With My Own Two Hands/War”. The crowd was in a frenzy at this point… the song even whipped Ben into frenzy and had him dancing his butt off … so much that he even fell on it.

Melanie and I both left the show feeling great and knowing that we had just experienced something awesome, and grateful that we got to see the show together. We’ve always like Ben’s music, but we are now forever in debt to him for giving us the best show ever. This was both of our first Ben Harper shows… and this will be the live show that all future live shows will be compared to for me… even future Ben Harper shows. I heard they were filming and recording audio for the show, so hopefully there will be some sort of live DVD in the works!

I took my Canon S70 point-n-shoot since there were no “professional” cameras allowed at the venue. I would’ve loved to have had my D70s and tele-zoom with me. Here are my choicest shots of the night…

Here’s a set list (which I found on the benharper.net forums)

Set I:
• Better Way
• Both Sides Of The Gun
• Engraved Invitation
• Homeless Child
• Forgiven
• Please Bleed
• Morning Yearning
• Waiting For You
• Happy Everafter In Your Eyes
• Reason To Mourn
• Black Rain
• Get It Like You Like It
• Steal My Kisses/Pressure Drop
• Serve Your Soul

Encore I:
• Another Lonely Day
• Roses From My Friends

Encore II:
• Gather ‘Round The Stone
• The Way You Found Me
• Wicked Man
• Dressed In Black
• Diamonds On The Inside
• Amen Omen
• Burn One Down
• Where Could I Go
• With My Own Two Hands/War

Melanie and I went to see Jack Johnson at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine this past Sunday night.

I was kicking myself as I was in line for beer when he opened with “Never Know”, which is my favorite track on “In Between Dreams”. I was next in line to order, and the jackass at the counter was buying a bottle of water and paying by credit card. Me and the guys behind me were vocal about how pissed we were. He closed the evening with a 4-song, solo acoustic set… the last song was “Better Together”, which is my next favorite track on “In Between Dreams”.

Overall, and excellent show… one of the best live shows I’ve ever been to, actually. The band was extremely tight and sounded amazing. Jack messed up lyrics on 3 songs, but he was so honest and amusing about it, it was nothing to be upset about. He even spilled his margarita on his guitar a few songs into the evening.

Worst part though… it took us an hour to get out of the parking lot … this was not fun … and just about ruined the night. We’ll never park in that lot again. I’d rather walk a bit and know that once I get to my car we can leave.