Article Contributed by Russell Levine
Published on 2026-08-23
Photos by Russell Levine
Jack Johnson's SURFILMUSIC Tour opened its run with Lake Street Dive at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach on August 18, 2026.
There are concerts that begin when the house lights go down, and then there are concerts that begin the moment you step out of your car and realize that South Florida has decided to turn the evening into a test of human endurance. Tuesday night at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre was definitely the latter, with the August humidity hanging over West Palm Beach like a wet blanket and thousands of people arriving already damp, slightly overheated and apparently more than willing to spend the next several hours getting even hotter for the privilege of hearing Jack Johnson play music about surfing, sunshine, relationships, banana pancakes and, eventually, Jimmy Buffett and Tom Petty.
As uncomfortable as the weather was, however, it turned out to be almost the perfect setting for the opening night of Johnson's latest SURFILMUSIC Tour. There was something strangely appropriate about sitting outside in the thick Florida air while giant waves rolled across the screens behind the stage and Johnson's music filled the amphitheater with the kind of laid-back rhythm that has always made his songs feel less like traditional rock songs and more like the soundtrack to a long afternoon somewhere near the ocean. Nobody seemed particularly interested in fighting the heat, and there was certainly no reason to fight the music; the crowd simply settled in, started singing and let the night take its course.
Lake Street Dive Sets the Tone
Before Jack Johnson ever appeared, Lake Street Dive had the job of convincing several thousand people that they should pay attention to somebody other than the headliner, which can be a thankless assignment when the audience has spent weeks or months waiting for the main event. Lake Street Dive, fortunately, is not a band that seems particularly interested in being anybody's warm-up act, and their 12-song set demonstrated why they have developed such a devoted following over more than two decades.
The band's story begins in 2004 at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music, where vocalist Rachael Price, bassist Bridget Kearney, drummer Mike Calabrese and trumpeter/guitarist Mike “McDuck” Olson came together as students with backgrounds in jazz but an obvious curiosity about everything outside the conservatory walls. Over the years, that combination evolved into a sound that refuses to stay in one category, moving comfortably between soul, R&B, folk, pop, rock, funk and Americana while retaining the sophisticated musicianship that might be expected from four conservatory-trained players. The remarkable thing is that Lake Street Dive never sounds like a band trying to remind you that they went to music school. The technical ability is obvious, but it is buried inside the songs rather than displayed for its own sake, which is probably why their performances feel so natural. They can execute complicated arrangements without making them feel complicated, and on Tuesday night that translated into a set that was polished without ever becoming sterile.
Rachael Price is a major reason for that. Her voice is the kind that can make you stop whatever else you are doing and pay attention, moving effortlessly from a quiet, almost conversational delivery into full-throated soul without ever sounding like she is trying to win a vocal competition. Price is a powerhouse, but she also understands restraint, and that combination gave Lake Street Dive's set a depth that went well beyond simply being a good opening performance. Bassist Bridget Kearney brought an entirely different kind of energy to the stage, with a playful personality and stage presence that made her difficult to ignore. There is something genuinely enjoyable about watching Kearney perform because she looks like she is having as much fun as the audience, and that sense of enjoyment spreads through the rest of the band. As a photographer, I also appreciated that Lake Street Dive allowed us into the pit, giving us the opportunity to get close enough to capture the expressions, interaction and energy that can disappear when you're shooting from the back of a large amphitheater.
Their set included “Hypotheticals,” “Better Not Tell You,” “Better Than,” “You're Never Around,” “I Want You Back,” “Linger,” “Dance With a Stranger,” “You're Still the One,” “You Go Down Smooth” and “Good Kisser,” among others, and their version of the Jackson 5's “I Want You Back” was particularly well done. It is a dangerous song to cover because everybody knows the original, but Lake Street Dive managed to make it sound like their own rather than simply recreating something that has already been done perfectly. By the time they walked offstage, the audience was thoroughly warmed up, although in this particular climate the phrase “warmed up” has to be taken with a sense of humor.
Jack Johnson Arrives
When Jack Johnson finally walked onto the stage, there was no attempt to create some oversized rock-star entrance, and there didn't need to be one. Johnson appeared with an acoustic guitar, surrounded by longtime collaborators Zach Gill, Merlo Podlewski and Adam Topol, and within a few minutes the amphitheater had settled into the unmistakable rhythm of a Jack Johnson concert. Opening with “Mudfootball,” Johnson moved into “Flake,” “Sitting, Waiting, Wishing,” “You and Your Heart” and “Breakdown,” and the response from the crowd was immediate. These are songs that have lived with people for years, and the audience wasn't waiting for Johnson to tell them when to sing; they already knew exactly what was coming and happily supplied large portions of the vocals themselves.
That is one of the most appealing things about Johnson as a live performer. He doesn't seem particularly interested in dominating the audience, and there is no great divide between the performer and the people standing in front of the stage. His concerts work because he leaves room for the audience to become part of the performance, whether that means singing an entire chorus, clapping along, whistling a melody or simply swaying with the music. The set moved easily through songs including “Holes to Heaven,” “Inaudible Melodies” and “If I Had Eyes,” before “Bubble Toes” eventually found its way into the Steve Miller Band's “Take the Money and Run.” It was one of several moments when Johnson reminded everyone that he has never been particularly concerned with keeping the evening inside the boundaries of a conventional setlist.
Zach Gill also deserves special mention, particularly for his work on melodica, which has become one of those sounds that immediately identifies the Johnson musical universe. Gill's playing added color and personality without ever crowding Johnson's songs, and the chemistry between the longtime members of the band was evident throughout the evening.
From Surfboards to Soundtracks
The SURFILMUSIC concept makes considerably more sense when you understand where Jack Johnson came from, because long before he was filling amphitheaters with acoustic pop songs, he was a surfer and filmmaker growing up on Oʻahu's North Shore. Johnson began surfing as a child and eventually moved into filmmaking, working with brothers Chris and Emmett Malloy on surf films including Thicker Than Water and The September Sessions, projects that documented not only surfing but the friendships, travel and culture surrounding it. The music grew naturally out of that world, with Johnson contributing songs to the films before those recordings eventually became the foundation for his recording career. His debut album, Brushfire Fairytales, transformed him from a relatively unknown surf filmmaker into an international recording artist, but he never abandoned the culture that had originally shaped him.
That history was brought directly onto the stage during the September Sessions portion of the concert, when archival surfing footage filled the enormous screens behind the band while Johnson and his musicians performed a live score. Watching surfers cut through waves while Johnson supplied the soundtrack made it clear that these aren't two separate chapters of his life; the surfing, filmmaking and music have always been connected. Johnson also used the opportunity to tell stories about some of the people he met through that world, including longtime friend and legendary surfer Rob Machado, and the relaxed way he told those stories made a massive amphitheater feel considerably smaller. It was less like watching a film presentation and more like sitting around listening to somebody tell stories about an old trip that somehow became part of the history of their life.
Tom Petty Joins the Party
After the September Sessions segment, Johnson introduced Lake Street Dive back onto the stage, explaining that it was the first night of the new run and that the two groups had gotten together earlier that day to work out a song for the audience. That song turned out to be Tom Petty's “You Don't Know How It Feels,” and suddenly the stage was packed with musicians. Rachael Price and Akie Bermiss shared the vocal duties with Johnson, while Gill moved between organ and melodica, and the members of Lake Street Dive blended into Johnson's longtime backing band. The performance had all the ingredients of a potentially awkward guest appearance, but instead it felt loose and natural, more like a group of musicians who were enjoying themselves than a carefully rehearsed production number.
Johnson has a history with Lake Street Dive that goes back to 2017, and that familiarity was obvious as the two groups settled into Petty's groove. There was no sense that anybody was trying to steal the spotlight from anybody else, and for a few minutes the distinction between “opening act” and “headliner” disappeared completely. It was simply a bunch of very good musicians playing a Tom Petty song together in West Palm Beach, which is exactly the kind of thing that makes live music worth leaving the house for.
The Broken Guitar Peg and the Universe in B-Flat
One of my favorite stories of the night came before “I Got You,” when Johnson explained how a broken tuning peg on one of his guitars eventually became a songwriting tool rather than something he immediately rushed out to repair. According to Johnson, one of his children accidentally broke the peg, leaving the guitar in an unusual tuning. Instead of fixing it, Johnson began experimenting with the altered instrument and eventually kept it that way for roughly a year and a half, using the unusual tuning while writing a substantial amount of material for From Here to Now to You. He connected the story to a conversation he once had with Neil Young about the universe naturally resonating in B-flat, joking that perhaps the broken guitar was simply the universe giving him a little assistance.
That story perfectly captures the personality that has always surrounded Johnson's music. There is no grand mythology attached to it; a kid breaks a guitar, the guitar sounds different, and instead of being annoyed, Dad decides to see what happens. Sometimes the accident becomes the song. Johnson then asked the entire amphitheater to whistle the opening melody of “I Got You,” and thousands of people responded. In the middle of a giant concert venue, with the Florida humidity still hanging over everything, the audience suddenly became part of the arrangement.
When a Fan Gets the Call
The acoustic encore produced another moment that could never have been written into the tour script. A fan named Aaron Esposito had hoped to bring a handmade sign into the venue reading “Your Music Heals” on one side and “I Want to Jam With You Guys!” on the other, but the sign wasn't allowed inside. Instead, Aaron wrote the message in his son's sketchbook and held it up during the acoustic portion of the show. Johnson noticed it.
Rather than simply acknowledging the fan and continuing with the show, Johnson asked him what song he wanted to play, and Aaron shouted out Jimmy Buffett's “A Pirate Looks at Forty.” Johnson's reaction was enthusiastic enough, and within moments Aaron found himself onstage singing with one of his favorite songwriters in front of thousands of people. Aaron later described the experience as surreal, admitting that he couldn't believe he had been brave enough to ask and that Johnson had been willing to trust some random guy from the front row not to completely screw it up. There is something wonderful about that kind of interaction because it doesn't feel like a carefully calculated “fan moment”; it feels like somebody took a chance, and the artist took a chance right back. Those are the moments that people remember long after the setlist has been forgotten.
The Music Has Always Been Bigger Than the Music
Johnson's environmental and community work is another important part of understanding the larger SURFILMUSIC project. Along with his wife, Kim, he founded the Kōkua Hawaiʻi Foundation in 2003 to support environmental education in Hawaiʻi, and the Johnson ʻOhana Foundation later expanded that work into environmental, arts and music education around the world. His All At Once social-action network has also become part of the touring experience, connecting concertgoers with nonprofit organizations and encouraging support for environmental and sustainable-food initiatives. The idea is consistent with the rest of Johnson's career: music creates a community, and that community can be used to accomplish something beyond simply selling tickets.
None of that was presented with any sense of self-importance in West Palm Beach. Johnson didn't spend the night giving a lecture about how good he is or how much good he has done. The work exists, the organizations exist and the audience has the opportunity to participate if they choose. Then the music starts again. That may be the best way to do it.
A Damn Good Night
I've photographed enough concerts to know that some nights are about the spectacle, some are about the musicianship, some are about the crowd and some are simply about being in the right place at the right time. This one was about all of it, but mostly it was about atmosphere.
Lake Street Dive brought the soul and gave us Rachael Price at full strength, Bridget Kearney bouncing around the stage and a band that could move effortlessly from jazz-informed musicianship into soul, pop and Americana. Then Jack Johnson took over and turned the entire amphitheater into what felt like a giant beach gathering, complete with surf films, acoustic guitars, Tom Petty, Sublime, Jimmy Buffett, thousands of voices and one extremely lucky guy from the front row. The South Florida heat never let up, and neither did the crowd. By the end of the night, people were still singing, still dancing and still willing to whistle on command, which is probably the most accurate measurement of whether a Jack Johnson concert is working.
For me, the vibe was damn near perfect. No pretension. No bullshit. Just great music, a mellow crowd and a giant outdoor stage temporarily transformed into some strange combination of a surf movie theater, a beach party and a backyard jam session. The kind of night where you walk away soaked in sweat, your camera gear feels like it has absorbed half the Atlantic Ocean, and somehow you don't care.
Because sometimes a concert doesn't need to knock you over. Sometimes it just needs to make you feel good. And on a brutally hot August night in West Palm Beach, Jack Johnson, Lake Street Dive and a few thousand sweaty South Floridians managed to do exactly that.
Russell Levine is a photographer and writer covering live music for Grateful Web. He has been documenting the jam band world and its community for years, camera in hand and a few decades of Dead shows in his bones.
