Live Earth Event Kicks Off In Asia, Australia

The former vice president took the technology a step further a few hours later, appearing on stage in Tokyo as a hologram to deliver his message.

“Global warming is the greatest challenge facing our planet, and the gravest we’ve ever faced,” said Gore — the only person in sight wearing a suit.

“But it’s one problem we can solve if we come together as one and take action and drive our neighbors, businesses and governments to act as well. That’s what Live Earth is all about.”

For the most part, the diverse range of performers wholeheartedly backed the call. Organizers promised the huge shows were made eco-friendly by using recycled goods and buying carbon credits to offset the inevitable high power bills.

In Sydney, an estimated 50,000 people grooved through a set by former professional surfer-turned singer-guitarist Jack Johnson, banged their heads to 1970s retro rockers Wolfmother, and gave a re-formed Crowded House a rapturous homecoming.

“This is so cool,” Neil Finn, the singer-guitarist who penned the band’s 1987 breakthrough “Don’t Dream It’s Over” and other hits. “We are the groundswell.”

When a glitch cut the massive on-stage light display backdrop two songs before the end, Finn didn’t miss a beat.

“There’s something deeply ironic about the fact that the power’s gone out — and we’re still having a good time,” he said.

Finn, like others on the bill, said Saturday’s event drew a line in the sand for rock concerts: from now on, offsetting the carbon emissions caused by powering big shows must be factored in to the cost of putting them on.

In Tokyo, Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington said in halting Japanese that the rap-metal act had joined the show “because we can make a difference if we only try.”

“Linkin Park will try to have environment-friendly concert tour,” he said.

Johnson made only one reference to the cause during his smooth-as-velvet set in Sydney — referring the crowd to an environmental Web site — though his songs were infused with fishing, surfing and a love of the outdoors.

Wolfmother’s wild-haired Andrew Stockdale was more bombastic, in keeping with his Grammy-winning band’s Deep Purple-style stadium rock aesthetic.

“Saviors of the world raise your hands,” he shouted.Aboriginal tribal leaders with white-painted bodies and shaking eucalyptus fronds were the first to take the stage in Sydney, singing and dancing a traditional welcome to the sounds of a didgeridoo, a wind pipe made from a hollow tree branch.

On a cool but sunny midwinter day, the crowd at one point chanted “Zero Seven, Zero Seven!” — a reference to the 07/07/07 date of the shows.

The Tokyo concert began with a high-tech, laser- and light-drenched performance by virtual-reality act Genki Rockets. Later, popular Japanese singer Ayaka urged fans to take up the concerts’ theme of changing their daily habits as a first step to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

“I started to carry my own eco-bag so I don’t have to use plastic grocery bags, and use my own chopsticks instead of disposable ones,” she said.

Problems and changes to the series continued right down to the last minute, with a ninth concert — in Washington, D.C. — added on Friday and a court battle continuing in Brazil to decide whether the show there could go ahead as planned.

Critics say that Live Earth lacks achievable goals, and that jet-setting rock stars whose amplifier stacks chew through power may send mixed messages about energy conservation.

Organizers say they’re using biodiesel for power, and recycled products where possible. Proceeds from ticket sales will go toward distributing power-efficient light bulbs and other measures to offset the shows’ greenhouse gas emissions.

The series rolls west through Saturday, from Sydney to Tokyo, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Hamburg, London, Rio de Janeiro, New Jersey and Washington.

Organizers were predicting live broadcasts on cable television and the Internet could reach up to 2 billion people.