Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Xavier Rudd

I’ll be the first to admit — I never got the Jack Johnson vibe. If I put on a CD by Johnson, within minutes I find myself…vacuuming. But a lot of other people dig his stuff, in droves. At a sold-out concert of his I was surprised to see hundreds of hard-core Johnson fans huddled well beyond the event’s perimeter. He is, I suppose, the current big Kahuna of surf.

There was a Jack Johnson let’s-make-pancakes-then-save-some-whales feel that slipped around Australian singer-songwriter Xavier Rudd’s bare feet like tidewater in the early days of his career. But when I read that Rudd had likened one of his later CDs to a journey into his own neuroses, I began to take more interest. “I needed to go into the dark rooms inside myself and clean off some dusty shelves,” he told a reporter about his 2008 release Dark Shades of Blue.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Rudd has been called a didgeridoo virtuoso. Not the first choice of musical instruments among emerging pop stars, didgeridoos are primitive wooden tubes said to have been made hollow by termites living in the Australian outback. They can make an almost satanic sound. Rudd sits behind a stand of didgeridoos onstage and is surrounded by percussion instruments and guitars, key among them a Weissenborn acoustic slide. Rudd’s electric guitar has acquired more grit from the reggae influence in his show. These days he’s more Sting and less Jack Johnson, with an authoritative punch added by the addition of a South African bassist-drummer rhythm section.

A few years ago Rudd and his wife were featured in an architecture rag for the self-sustaining home they built near Melbourne. I asked him what it’s like, living off the grid, and he emailed back: “It takes some work, dedication, and knowledge, and sometimes some problem solving, but it is a great feeling. And the silence is amazing.”

XAVIER RUDD: Belly Up, Tuesday, August 17, 9 p.m. 858-481-8140. Sold out.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Nation’s sexy soldiers stage protest at Pendleton in wake of change in Marine uniform policy

Semper WHY?

I’ll be the first to admit — I never got the Jack Johnson vibe. If I put on a CD by Johnson, within minutes I find myself…vacuuming. But a lot of other people dig his stuff, in droves. At a sold-out concert of his I was surprised to see hundreds of hard-core Johnson fans huddled well beyond the event’s perimeter. He is, I suppose, the current big Kahuna of surf.

There was a Jack Johnson let’s-make-pancakes-then-save-some-whales feel that slipped around Australian singer-songwriter Xavier Rudd’s bare feet like tidewater in the early days of his career. But when I read that Rudd had likened one of his later CDs to a journey into his own neuroses, I began to take more interest. “I needed to go into the dark rooms inside myself and clean off some dusty shelves,” he told a reporter about his 2008 release Dark Shades of Blue.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Rudd has been called a didgeridoo virtuoso. Not the first choice of musical instruments among emerging pop stars, didgeridoos are primitive wooden tubes said to have been made hollow by termites living in the Australian outback. They can make an almost satanic sound. Rudd sits behind a stand of didgeridoos onstage and is surrounded by percussion instruments and guitars, key among them a Weissenborn acoustic slide. Rudd’s electric guitar has acquired more grit from the reggae influence in his show. These days he’s more Sting and less Jack Johnson, with an authoritative punch added by the addition of a South African bassist-drummer rhythm section.

A few years ago Rudd and his wife were featured in an architecture rag for the self-sustaining home they built near Melbourne. I asked him what it’s like, living off the grid, and he emailed back: “It takes some work, dedication, and knowledge, and sometimes some problem solving, but it is a great feeling. And the silence is amazing.”

XAVIER RUDD: Belly Up, Tuesday, August 17, 9 p.m. 858-481-8140. Sold out.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

2024’s Best Bitcoin & Crypto Casinos – Play BTC Casino Games Online

Best Bitcoin Casinos (2024): Top 10 Crypto Casino Sites for BIG Payouts
Next Article

Reader Music Issue short takes

Obervatory's mosh pit, frenetic Rafael Payare, Lemonhead chaos, bleedforthescene, Coronado Tasting Room
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.