TORONTO -- Last night was a fine night to head to the beach, I mean waterfront, and see Jack Johnson. Not the prizefighter, not the delta bluesman, but the surfer dude from Hawaii -- the one who made surfing movies and, eventually, musical soundtracks for them.

Johnson might have remained a surfer who liked to serenade folks on the beach with his songs if it weren't for surfing buddy and fellow folky blues practitioner G. Love, who encouraged him to record his music.

Eventually, Johnson collected his songs together into an album called Brushfire Fairytales. It was so successful that before long Johnson started his own record company, Brushfire, signed G. Love and another musical surfer, Donavon Frankenreiter, put out their albums plus his own followup, On And On, and became something of a phenomenon.

The logical next step was to take the show on the road -- hence, the Brushfire Tour at the Amphitheatre last night.

Frankenreiter opened to a theatre packed with youthful Jack fans and full of good vibes, and played mellow, rhythmic Santana-influenced bluesy rock with his band for the appreciative crowd.

Next came G. Love, a.k.a. Philadelphian surfer (!) Garrett Dutton, whose Special Sauce band consisted of Jimmy "Jazz" Prescott on standup bass and Jeffrey Clemens on drums. With its white-boy hip-hop-blues with touches of ska, theirs was the least successful set of the evening, with some of the interminable fun-kay jams from their new album, The Hustle, becoming tiresome.

After an intermission of seductively gorgeous surfing films, Jack Johnson came out with his band and began playing his tasteful, subtle acoustic guitar-based songs, starting with the new album's Taylor, a bleak song about a desperate woman whose dark lyrics were offset by a cheerful melody. Other highlights were the bouncy Bubble Toes, Plastic Jesus, Wasting Time and Tomorrow Morning.

Some of Johnson's appeal may result from the fact that he's sensitive enough for the girls and yet is macho enough to master the big waves for the guys.

He plays wisps of songs, but they obviously resonate with the audience.

The tunes are simple but hummable, and they possess gently insistent grooves that make the kids sway, nod their heads and sing along.

Meanwhile, Johnson plays beautiful and quite soulful guitar riffs to accompany his quietly melancholic voice.

On It's All Understood, Merlo Podlewski's bass boomed and Johnson played reggae rhythms on his guitar, but otherwise the songs shared a lazy, mellow rhythm.

If they sounded alike, though, it clearly wasn't a problem for his ecstatic fans.

JAM! Rating: 3 out of 5