Hawaiian troubadour Jack Johnson returned to the M.E.N Arena on Monday 7 July with support from Mason Jennings and G Love & Special Sauce.

Check out the M.E.N review by Mike Caulfield - 8/ 7/2008

Few slacker CV's are as comprehensively complete as Hawaiian native Jack Johnson's; professional surfer, musician, filmmaker, and vocal Dave Angel-esque eco-warrior - albeit with far more success than his laid back nature would suggest.

Now you can add record label head honcho to those achievements, with the evening's two supports, Mason Jennings and G Love and the Special Sauce, coming straight from his Bushfire Records roster.     

Having cracked into the soft-acoustic-rock - dare it be said - M.O.R lovers consciousness, Jack Johnson is now able to draw huge crowds wherever he decides to ply his unhurried, light-hearted tunes, with a mostly sold out M.E.N Arena crowd tonight willing to substitute all musical intimacy in turn for a glimpse of the man himself.

Appearing with barebones backing of bass, drums, piano and his own gentle strumming, Johnson's songs soon have the mostly respectful audience (bare four very vocal blokes that appear to have gotten lost on their way to a Millwall match circa-1980) swaying hypnotically along to his own understated tempos. 

But whilst his gentle rhythms and mellow melodies have most in raptures, it's clear early on that Johnson, try as he might, simply doesn't have the big stage ego or character to command such an enormous venue yet, with uncomfortable banter throughout.

Nor do his laid-back acoustic-led romantic songs carry over well into big communal sing-alongs these rooms seem to carry, and are built to house.

So while big hitters 'Sitting, Wishing, Waiting', newer tacks 'Sleep Through The Static', 'Hope' and classic 'Breakdown' are amiable enough, surely it's time for Johnson to bring bigger ideas to these huge stages.

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