DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM The hip-hop-fusion band Ozomatli jumped off the stage and wandered into the crowd on the lawn of the Waikiki Shell to close out its set at Saturday's Kokua Festival. The crowd went wild over the unexpected chance to surround the band.

Musical marathon

Jack Johnson caps a concert fund-raiser
that features John Cruz, Ozomatli and
a solo Jackson Browne

F ROM KEIKI to kupuna, Jack Johnson fans of all ages packed the Waikiki Shell during Saturday's sold-out Kokua Festival. A benefit for Johnson's nonprofit Kokua Foundation, the concert attracted a crowd as diverse as the music featured on stage. North Shore residents who made the trek into town were rewarded with an opening set by Kawika Kahiapo with Kaukahi.

Others, such as Brigham Young University-Hawaii students Brett Francis, Cory Hodnett and Chad Rencher, showed up long before the Shell's gates opened at 3:30 p.m. They wanted to be among the first 500 people inside, which would also give them access to the pit area in front of the stage.

Francis, who bought his ticket in February and admitted he was there "mostly for Jack," also named G. Love and Ozomatli as two acts he was looking forward to seeing perform.

Luckily, they both followed Kahiapo. And like a good host, Johnson himself came out to address the growing crowd and introduce both of them.

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Jack Johnson, top, organized the benefit Kokua Festival, inviting friends Jackson Browne, right, and John Cruz, below, to perform at the Shell on Saturday.

AS G. LOVE and Special Sauce got the pit jumping for the first time that afternoon, Fort Shafter resident Kelly Kramer sat on a blanket with her husband and three children.

"This is the first time we've been to the Shell," she said. "This is great. ... The kids get to sit outside and play, and we get to listen to music."

Elsewhere in the crowd, some parents carried keiki around on their shoulders while other children were allowed to dart through the masses unattended. In the Diamond Head corner of the Shell grounds, among a row of information and vendor booths, a group sat with members of the Waimea Valley Audubon Center and learned how to make coconut cordage.

And even though Johnson's set was about four hours away, some fans were already itching for him to get on stage. Kailua residents Dana Dorris and Lyndsey Rodgers didn't recognize any of the other bands that day, and they didn't care.

"We're obsessed with him," said Dorris as the two waited in line for the bathroom. "I made eight of these for my girlfriends!"

Sporting matching tank tops with ironed-on letters that proclaimed their love for Johnson, the two women had an easy solution to deal with waiting for the headliner to play.

"We're just going to keep drinking," she said.

BESIDES JOHNSON in the closing set, no other band got the crowd moving as much as Los Angeles hip-hop fusion band Ozomatli.

As the last rays of sunlight battled with the growing shadows at the Shell, Ozomatli kicked the level of audience participation up a notch. When it was time to make way for the next act, all seven members of the group jumped into the audience and spent a good 10 minutes parading through the lawn area before finishing with an impromptu drum circle near the vendor booths.

The crowd mellowed a bit during John Cruz's performance, spent mostly showcasing new material off his upcoming album. The only nod to the past came when he played "Kawailehua'a'alakahonua."

Following Cruz was Jackson Browne, whom Kahiapo described as "one of the old prophets of music" as the stage was being prepared for his set. Without any backup, Browne spent his allotted time alternating between a keyboard setup and an acoustic guitar.

"See what this place does to people?" asked Browne after a few guys from Ozomatli sat in on a song. Later, John Cruz would return with two members of Johnson's band to help with a stripped-down version of "Runnin' on Empty."

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Jackson Browne, right, showed John Cruz his guitar Saturday backstage at the Kokua Festival. They jammed together later, with Cruz using Browne's guitar.

Without introduction, Johnson strolled out to address the crowd one last time at 8:30 p.m. Instead of sporting board shorts with his North Shore Community Land Trust T-shirt, as he had for most of the afternoon, he dressed things up a bit with a pair of jeans.

"How you doing, you guys all right?" he asked. Sensing that the time had come, the sold-out crowd surged forward in the dark as Johnson started off with "Taylor."

For almost 90 minutes, he kept the Shell on its feet as he played all the hits from "Brushfire Fairytales" and "On and On." Down in the pit, Manoa resident Natalie Sokol couldn't get enough of the guy from Kahuku.

"I'm having the best time," she said. "I've seen Jack in Australia, New York and at the Waimea Festival. ... He's awesome!"

But as one of the fans who braved the rain at Kualoa Ranch last year, she'd also like the Kokua Festival to remain a country event. "I'd want to see it back on the North Shore. But having it at the Shell is great. Hawaii needs more of this kind of stuff."