Michael Franti & Spearhead concert review

Eugene LOVES Sea Shepherd, and so does Michael Franti and Spearhead !! We had a wonderful night... met lots of supporters and gained new supporters, saw old friends and met new friends, raised awareness, and sold lots of Sea Shepherd gear. As usual, Michael put on an AMAZING show and spread lots of love, as well as major interaction from the crowd.

For this tour, he has a backdrop on stage with thousands of cloth swatches stapled to it that fans have written messages of peace, love and hope on. As the tour goes on, it grows. Sea Shepherd Eugene now has a swatch on that wall so our message will travel with him!

If you've never seen Michael Franti before, I highly recommend it, you WILL love him! Personally (John), I have seen about 421 concerts (not including fairs, bars, etc.), and if I exclude the Grateful Dead family, he literally puts on the best shows I've ever seen... ALWAYS good fun, music and fans. And Sea Shepherd Eugene's own Jasmine Tribolet got to dance on stage with him for the 9th time! She's known Michael since she was 7, playing his guitar once, and singing with him a few times, including a duet once on her birthday.

When the show was over, the party kept on going until midnight with guitarist J Bowman as DJ pumping out club music as the group of fans that danced with Michael during the final encore made the stage their own little dance club. Jasmine was the last person dancing for the final 20 minutes, with about 1/4 of the crowd still in the audience dancing and cheering her on!

After the club mix was over, Michael came out to the lobby near our table to personally say hello to his fans, sign autographs and have pictures taken with him until 1am, even though they have a long ride to Vancouver, Canada when they were done. He truly appreciates each and every person he meets.

And because his fans are such kind, loving people, the ones who already know Sea Shepherd sincerely loved the fact the Sea Shepherd Eugene was there, they love what we do, and were happy that we have a chapter here now. The folks that didn't know us, certainly do now, and were VERY warm and receptive... not one negative word, nothing but love and support for what Sea Shepherd does.

And a huge shout out to the staff at the historic McDonald Theater (Not WOW Hall), and Kesey Enterprises for all of their kind words, help and support... I always love shows in that venue and we hope to come back real soon! #ShepherdOn #SeaShepherdEugene