Jason Mraz at NJPAC, February 23, 2015: Set List

I really thought I was done with this tour after the show I saw in Paris. I had no plans to see Mraz again. Honest.

But then I decided to quit my job and travel around the world, and a friend convinced me to join her in New York for a week. And it just happened that Mraz had a show in New Jersey that weekend. And it’s only about 20 minutes by train from Manhattan to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. So I could hardly pass it by, right?

The NJPAC is lovely, but the sound wasn’t the best. Far too much bass, although since a lot of the show was just Jason and hit guitar it wasn’t that big a problem.

Jason came out to introduce Raining Jan (no “e” this time because Mai was missing due to a family emergency). The audience always seems surprised that he just wanders out on stage to say hello instead of waiting for a big fancy introduction. I think it’s one of the best things about him.

Then the ladies came out, but they only did two songs to kick things off. Maybe because they were down a woman? They started with one I hadn’t heard at any of the previous shows, which was a nice change of pace.

• Desperate Sails
• The Opposite of Blue

I love Mona Tavakoli.

And then Jason came out to join them and they launched into:

• Love Someone
• Dynamo of Volition (I love the way he changed the lyrics up at the end, singing one of the lines as “You’re the best recipe that I’ve got in the kitchen.”)
• A Beautiful Mess
• I Take the Music Everywhere I Go (This one was new to me! Always fun to hear something for the first time. And this is the point where they all came to the front of the stage and played around one microphone together.)
• Hello, You Beautiful Thing
• Lucky
• Make It Mine
• Quiet (This is quickly becoming my favorite live song. Although as soon as he plays “Plane” or “I’m Coming Over” that changes. It’s so hard to pick just one.)
• Frank D. Fixer (This started solo and then the full band came in and stayed until intermission.)
• 3 Things
  

  On “Mr. Curiosity”: “It took me forever to learn to lip sync that.”

• Mr. Curiosity
• Bottom of the Sea

At the end of the night this little Mraz fan declared, “This was the best show ever!”

Intermission

• Long Drive (He played this one with the band and didn’t bring up a young lady to go on a date with him. Maybe that bit was getting old.)
• After an Afternoon (I love hearing the old, old stuff!)

Jason took a little break here to say hello to a girl in the audience who had a sign saying it was her 18th birthday. “Congratulations. You’ve just made it through the easiest part of your life,” he said, and the audience, which looked to be mostly people over the age of 30, had a big laugh. He then encouraged everyone to create an “Acknowledgement tsunami” where you say a flood of nice things about someone. And he changed the girl’s name from Abigail to Abby, “because we really just need something with two syllables.”

• You Fkin Did It (He sang it as “Abby did it, she really did it yeah…” and managed to do the whole song while only saying the F word once. I wondered if that was partly because of the two small girls in the front row who he saw and smiled at early in the evening. Maybe he tries to avoid the swears in front of kids.)
• Becky’s sitar solo -> 93 Million Miles (At the end of this one he added a verse about the Milky Way that was really pretty. He also had all the lights turned out and made everyone sing the “Home” part together in the dark. It was beautiful and moving and perfect.)
• Shine
• I’m Yours (During this song he was watching and smiling at the two little girls in front of me again, and I swear when he sang “We are one big family” he gave an extra smile and nod to their cute gay dads.)
• I’ll Be There (Yes, the Jackson 5 song.)
• I Won’t Give Up
• It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye
  

Jason Mraz at Casino de Paris, France, September 30, 2014: Set List

Salut, Paris! This was my first-ever Mraz concert outside of the U.S. and I was super excited to be there. I spent a whole week in Paris visiting friends (I didn’t go just for this show), but this concert was certainly a highlight of my vacation.

Jason began the show by coming out and saying “bonjour” to the crowd, who all went wild. He introduced Raining Jane and then came the most important moment of the entire evening. Becky came out wearing red pants. I’ll say that one more time.

BECKY. WORE. RED. PANTS.

RED PANTS!

It was awesome.

We also learned that Mai spent some time living in France and speaks pretty decent French. And then they played these songs:

Love is a Battlefield

Wish You Were Here

Mona paused a moment to tell the crowd: “Paris is the shit! It’s dipped in gold and smells like chocolate.” Clearly, Mona hadn’t taken the Metro. It smells like a lot of things, but chocolate is not one of them.

The Opposite of Blue

Jason came out, but instead of joining Jane, they left and he sat on the edge of the stage and played some stripped down versions of my favorite songs. He didn’t do “I’m Coming Over” at any of the U.S. shows I went to, so that was a huge treat.

I’m Coming Over -> If It Kills Me -> and he wrapped this medley up with a little “Jai guru deva” (a la the Beatles’ “Across the Universe”) but the second time around changed “Nothin’s gonna change my world” to “Nothin’s gonna change that girl”. It’s probably a line most men have said to themselves at some point.

With Jane back on stage they launched into their set:

Hello, You Beautiful Thing

Long Drive (the girl he called up for this was adorable and in complete disbelief throughout the whole thing)

Becky’s sitar solo -> 93 Million Miles Love Someone

Jason didn’t talk as much to the crowd during this show as he did at others, maybe in case there were fans whose English wasn’t so good, but he did talk a little about how he doesn’t just wake up every day feeling super positive with rainbows shooting out over his head. He said, “I have to create the rainbow.”

And I liked that, because I know there are a lot of days where I just wait for the rainbow to appear, and then get annoyed when they don’t. So when I got back to my office a few days later, I made myself a poster. And now I annoy all of my co-workers by reminding them when they complain about things not going right, “You have to make the rainbow.” 🙂

Clearly, making inspirational posters is not my forte. But it’s getting the motivational job done.

Song for a Friend -> Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics cover) -> Dynamo of Volition

During Dynamo he gave instructions on how to do the “gimme a high five – way down low – gimme a high ten” dance moves, and wow, do French people love to get up and dance. Maybe it’s because this was a smaller, more intimate venue, but everyone, even in the balcony where I was sitting, everyone got up and danced. They were having a blast.

Look at them dancing!

Lucky

I’d Rather Dance With You (?) – I think this is a cover of a song by a band called Kings of Convenience, but I’ve never heard it before – by Jason or anyone else – so correct me if you know for sure what it is.

Back to the Earth -> Living in the Moment (but just a little of it)

Mr. Curiosity

Out of nowhere Jason sang a line or two of “Fantastic Voyage”, but I suppose that’s a pretty good lead in to the video of the voyage he took to Antarctica. It’s fantastic and you should watch it again and again.

Bottom of the Sea

– Intermission –

At this point it was pretty steamy in the theater. Maybe the French don’t believe in air conditioning. But when he came back out, Jason started off with, “It’s getting hot in here…” But he didn’t take off all his clothes. He just sang some more.

You can never have too many lasers.

Remedy (starting solo, then with Jane joining in)

Out of My Hands

Make It Mine

I Won’t Give Up

You and I Both

Details in the Fabric (with a shout out to his friend Billy – a.k.a. Bushwalla – for his birthday)

3 Things

Shine

Somewhere Over the Rainbow -> I’m Yours

I’m pretty sure that’s my last show for 2014, so see you in 2015!

I am following your joy,
Lisa

Jason Mraz at Radio City Music Hall, New York, September 23, 2014: Set List

Live from New York!

In between my planned trip to Boston and Paris last month I squeezed in 48 hours in New York. I got to have reunions with a few friends that I haven’t seen in 5-10 years, and also caught the last night of Jason’s Five Boroughs Tour.

I’m glad I didn’t try to do all five, because I love his jokes, even the second and third time, but even I have a threshold for how many times in one week I can hear “I’m Yours”.

That said, the concert was amazing, and I loved my first experience at Radio City Music Hall. I’d love to go back someday to see the Rockettes, since that seems like the one thing you should do there.

The show opened as usual with Jason coming out to talk to the crowd. He again asked who was there alone, and I screamed, embarassingly loudly, that I had come all the way from San Francisco. To which Mraz said:

“San Francisco? Groovy.” And to the rest of the audience, “That’s California speak.”

End interaction. The woman sitting across from me, who was with her husband of 30 years, was very excited for me. She also threatened to throw her bra on stage, so I think she was pretty excited about everything. Mraz really draws a diverse crowd.

Raining Jane came on and played three songs:
Wish You Were Here
The Opposite of Blue
Love is a Battlefield

And then Jason came back and the set went like this:

Everywhere

Sweet Dreams -> Dynamo of Volition
About Dynamo he said: “I have no idea what this song is about.” He said it came from him reading the phrase “volition is a dynamo” and deciding to just sit and write whatever came out, and not stop no matter what. It explains a lot.

Mona always looks like a bad-ass.

Details in the Fabric

Lucky (with the mashed-up Set Adrift on Memory Bliss – Enjoy the Silence ending)

Then he talked about people who say “that guy has changed” and think he’s too happy. He joked, “Maybe my next album will be about melancholy and mediocrity.” I don’t think he could do it if he tried.

The Sunshine Song (without Raining Jane)

Shhhhh. Quiet.

Quiet (with Raining Jane again)

Make It Mine

And in here came a little advice on how to be a writer: Write for 10 minutes every morning. “There is a voice that is your truth.”

Frank D. Fixer

Back to the Earth

Jason shared some photos of his backyard, with some words of encouragement for urban farmers everywhere.

Mr. Curiosity

Bottom of the Sea (That’s what more people call it. I want to call it “Sail Away With You”)

Who wants to go to Antarctica? Let’s dance with penguins. Safely. From a distance.

He also told us the tragic story of a food wrapper he accidentally dropped overboard in Antarctica and how gutted he felt about it. “I did apologize to Vice President Al Gore.” Well, that’s ok then.

I Won’t Give Up

– Inner Mission –

This does not refer to a neighborhood in San Francisco.

Love Someone

Song for a Friend

And now Jason asked again, “Who came here alone?” And I thought, “This is it! This is my moment!” And then he walked to the opposite side of the sage and picked out another girl. She was adorable and in a short skirt, so I guess I can’t blame him.

But as he was talking to her one of the sound guys came and set up a microphone right the hell in front of me. So I didn’t get to go on stage with Jason, but I pretty much had him in my lap. And I got my own three seconds of fame when I stood up and took the girl’s phone from her so I could record this glorious experience for her. You can see me here at about the 50 second mark:

🙂

Do you know this girl? Have her email me. I have some great photos.

Long Drive

Are you sure you have a license?

Becky’s bad-ass sitar solo -> 93 Million Miles

Go, Becky, go!

Shine

Mona just keeps rocking it.

Then Jason was joined by the adorable Ahmad El Haggar from Egypt and they sang Remedy in two languages, then finished the show together with I’m Yours.

I loved this guy. You should look him up.

And the next morning I was off to Paris 🙂

For the moment, I don’t want to go home,
Lisa

Jason Mraz at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, August 26, 2014: Set List

Night two in San Francisco!

It started again with Jason coming out sans fanfare to say ‘hey’ to the crowd. But this time he was wearing a cape, which was fantastic.

 

It’s Guitar Man!

Then some lady up front (not me) shouted that she wanted to cut his hair, which was weird, and he delicately sidestepped the offer by saying he’d just recently gotten it all cut off, partly because he was tired of people thinking he was Kenny G.

He should sell these at the merch booth. It would be a popular Halloween costume.

Then he introduced the ladies of Raining Jane, and they played these three songs on their own:

A World That’s Made for Me and You
No Fear/You’re Enough? (Not sure what this one is called.)
Love Is a Battlefield

Then Jason returned, this time with lights and fog and the whole bit, and he and the Janes skipped the older stuff they’d done the night before and led off with these songs:

Everywhere
Hello, You Beautiful Thing
A Beautiful Mess – Before this one Jason was talking about how great it is to see so many people together, looking in one direction. Then he clarified, “We’re not One Direction. We’re the other direction.”
I Won’t Give Up – Jason called this one, not a break up song, but a save up song, for when you’re trying to save the relationship.
You Can Rely On Me

Quiet
All Dialed In – This one he introduced by talking about some of the environmental type books he’d been reading at the time, like “The World Without Us” by Alan Weisman.
The Woman I Love
Out of My Hands – “This is in case the woman totally freaks out on you and leaves you. You tried your best.”
3 Things
Back to the Earth
Shine

The crowd is riveted.

– Intermission –

Lucky (with the “Sweet Child ‘o Mine” guitar riff) –> Set Adrift on Memory Bliss –> Enjoy the Silence
Long Drive – Done with a lucky audience member sitting next to him, driving an imaginary car.
93 Million Miles
Love Someone
Song for a Friend

Mona makes me want to dance, too.

Bottom of the Sea – For the kids album he may someday do, and set to a video of the trip he and Mona took to Antarctica, when he had the Kenny G hair. The best part was that it took them three tries to play the right chords, and then to get the video to sync with their playing. It’s fun when people aren’t perfect.

Jason Mraz on a boat in Antarctica. Not, luckily, at the bottom of the sea.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow ->I’m Yours
It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday

By the end of the evening I was so glad I went to both San Francisco shows. The first night we got “1,000 Things”, “Dynamo”, “Make it Mine” and “Details in the Fabric” and he didn’t play any of those the second night, but we did get more new stuff.

I’m headed to New York in a few weeks, not for the whole Five Burroughs tour, but for one night at Radio City Music Hall. Can’t wait to see what a New York Mraz crowd is like.

To float your boat is what I’m hoping,
Lisa

Jason Mraz at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, August 25, 2014: Set List

The tour is on! After warming up in San Diego, Jason and the Janes headed up to San Francisco and gave us a fantastic night of music at Symphony Hall. It’s a beautiful place for a concert, and the curved seating arrangement makes it look like there isn’t a bad seat in the house.

Aug 25, 2014 – San Francisco, CA – Soundcheck
(Posted by Jason Mraz, Photo by Jeff Coffman)

But for the first time ever I had a front row seat, right in the middle, right in front of Jason, and that seat was spectacular.

Jason was nice enough to post a photo of my seat. I added the arrow. He’s not psychic. (Aug 25, 2014 – San Francisco, CA – Soundcheck,
Photo by Jeff Coffman)

As usual, Jason came out before the show started, without any pomp or rock star swagger, to say hello, thank everyone for coming, and to introduce Raining Jane. He noted that doing this sort of ruins any big entrance that he might make later, but I love the low-key chatter.

Raining Jane took the stage and played three of their songs:
Howling forever? – They didn’t say what the name of this one was, and this is the only lyric I write down. Any ideas?

Chaska introduced the second song: This goes out to anyone who’s had their heart broken.
Mona: By a douchebag.

I really, really love Mona.

I want to be Mona when I grow up. Except she’s younger than me. But whatever.

The Opposite of Blue
Wish You Were Here

And then Jason did make a big entrance, with the stage curtains parting and him walking out all back-lit and dramatic. There may have been lasers.

Did I mention I had a really good seat?

Only Human
Dynamo of Volition
Lucky – Set Adrift on Memory Bliss – Enjoy the Silence

PM Dawn *and* Depeche Mode? So good.

And then we got a little pep talk from Jason on optimism, and how you have to work at it sometimes.

Remedy – This was stripped way down, just him and his guitar, more mellow than usual.
1,000 Things – He played this with the ladies, minus Becky, saying “It’s Raining Jan, because there’s only three of them.” He also introduced this song by saying that when he was younger he was optimistic about  “gettin’ some”, and that’s what this song is about.

1,000 things went right during this show.

And then Becky came back! I love how apathetic and Daria-esque she looks most of the time, like an older sister who was forced to go to a party to watch over a younger sibling.

Oh, Becky.

But then sometimes she smiles and you think, “Hey, she doesn’t hate this!”

She likes it!

Hello, You Beautiful Thing
Rely On Me

And then there was a little break in the music while he talked about the Jason Mraz Foundation and the good work they do there working with kids of all ages and abilities, and we watched a short video about it. Then, to demonstrate the way they teach kids to put themselves in other people’s shoes, they played Details in the Fabric. Blindfolded.

But Jason, how do you stay so positive?
3 Things
Back to the Earth
Love Someone
Song for a Friend

– Intermission –

Already, if he’d stopped right there it would have been an incredible show, but there was a whole second half!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow -> I’m Yours

Leading the crowd in the sing-along at the end if “I’m Yours”.

And then he talked about going to Antarctica with scientists to study global warming and perform on a boat, which he said was like “An Inconvenient Truth… the Ride”. And we got a new song and highly entertaining video to go with it, which they played along to, live, in perfect synchronicity.

Sail Away With You
Long Drive

Chaska was rocking out for her sort-of hometown crowd.

I think Becky’s sitar solo was in here, and had Mraz dancing around the stage like he was at Burning Man.

93 Million Miles
A World With You
Shine

Flying through space with Jason Mraz, Rocket Man.

And that still wasn’t all, because there was an encore:
What Would Love Do Now? (From the film “May I Be Frank”)
I Won’t Give Up

I gotta say, that’s the biggest downer of a song to end a show with. It’s just so slow. But it was still one of my favorite Mraz shows ever, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to not sit in the front row again 🙂 I’m so spoiled now. It’s just really cool to be close enough to see them all smiling at each other, laughing at little goofs, and having a ton of fun. You could tell through the whole night that they were having a blast up there.

Mraz fingernails close-up.

I’m doing a few more shows this tour, so check back for more updates and set lists.

Long drive, long night,
The best night of my life,
Lisa

Jason Mraz at the Great American Music Hall, May 3, 2014: Set List

Jason Mraz and Raining Jane joined Wavy Gravy at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco last weekend for a benefit concert hosted by Seva, a non-profit foundation that partners with groups worldwide to create self-sustaining programs that preserve and restore sight.

Not a bad mission, right?

I only found out about this show from a Facebook ad. It was never listed on Jason’s website, tour schedule or anywhere else. I was actually a little nervous that the whole thing was a scam and they were using his photo and name to promote a show and he might not actually be there. But there he was.

Along with being a benefit, this was also a birthday party, which made for the strangest freaking show I’ve ever been to. I had a balcony seat at the Hall, which was just a chair put alongside the balcony. I purchased a seat because I assumed the general admission tickets would be standing room on the floor, like the other shows I’ve been to at this place, and it’s just too hard being a short chick in a crowd. But instead the floor was full of small tables, where I guess people had dinner for the birthday guy, Larry, before the concert. So I don’t know where the general admission people were, maybe hanging out in back by the bar?

The weird part was that because most of these people were here for the party, I don’t think they were all that interested in Mraz. Or even knew who he was. The average age on the floor was maybe 60, and a good number of them left before Jason and Jane even got on stage. A few more left during his show, and some of those who stayed were just walking around, standing in groups talking and laughing and not really paying attention to him at all.

It was like being at a wedding where no one likes the band who’s playing. Except for those of us in the balcony who actually came to see Jason, of course.

So the show started with Jason signing Happy Birthday to some guy named Larry and all of us upstairs were saying, “Who? Is this some rich guy who hired Jason for the night? What’s going on down there? Is this not just a concert?”

Luckily Jason enlightened us during the show, explaining how he met Larry Brilliant on the trip he and Mona took to Antarctica last year. You know, the one that Al Gore invited him on. This one. He was inspired by the work Larry was doing (as was Time magazine, who named him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world) and was already familiar with Seva because his manager used to make donations in Mraz’ name to Seva on gift-giving occasions.

Ok, so now it’s all making a little more sense.

Mraz for his part put on a fantastic, if low-key, show. He didn’t seem to mind that some of these people had no idea who he was, even commenting at one point, “This is a new song, although they might all be new to some of you.” And Wavy Gravy seemed to really enjoy the whole thing, so that was lovely.

Here’s what all got played (I marked songs that haven’t been on an album yet as “NEW”, although they did get played on the last little Jason and Jane tour, so they might not be new to you anymore):

• Happy Birthday, but not the regular version – a totally new Mrazy song
• NEW – When You Love Someone
• Give Me Love, Give Me Peace on Earth (a George Harrison cover – thanks to the comment below for pointing this out)
• 93 Million Miles
• Only Human (with sitar intro)
• Ripple (Grateful Dead song with Dead guitarist Bob Weir joining Mraz on stage)
• I’m Yours -> Three Little Birds
• NEW – Back to the Earth
• Frank D. Fixer
• NEW – Three Little Things
• You Can Rely On Me
• Lucky, with all four Janes and the Guns and Roses “Sweet Child o’Mine” guitar solo, the one that Jason says is the only classic guitar riff he knows
• The Woman I Love
• Amazing Grace -> I Won’t Give Up

Also during the show, Jason said he had an album coming out in a couple of weeks. Whaaa?

Breathtaking,
Lisa

Jason Mraz at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, March 15, 2014: Set List

It’s been about a year and a half since I last saw Mraz and I’m very grateful to be in California where he’s currently doing a mini tour with Raining Jane as his band. I caught the first night of their “rare” acoustic tour, in Santa Cruz and the crowd felt really energized to have Mraz back on the road and to have the Jane ladies back on their home turf.

Singer Chaska Potter is from Santa Cruz and mentioned that she grew up singing in the Civic Auditorium at the holidays, so this is all very full circle for her. If you saw Mraz’ last tour and loved percussionist Mona Tavakoli then good news! She’s one fourth of Raining Jane and is just as crazy and energetic as always. (Read more about how she and Jason met on his blog.) She’s also a San Jose native and gave a big shout out to the San Ho valley girls.

Low key as usual, Jason came out before the show started to chat up the audience and introduce Raining Jane. I love that he doesn’t need to make a big entrance with a spotlight or anything, he just sort of wanders out to say hey and ask people how traffic was. (It was bad. Damn those curvy mountain roads.)

Raining Jane played four songs. I don’t know what they were, but they were nice. And then they introduced Jason, who had no idea he was supposed to go on:

When he finally made it on stage he sat down on the edge of it, just him and his guitar. It’s my favorite way to hear him perform and he picked some fantastic songs for us:

(If it’s a song I haven’t heard before I’m labeling it “NEW” and making up a name for it, although he may have performed it before and I’m just out of the loop.)

• NEW – Throwback Thursday
• You and I Both
• Tonight, Not Again (For me, this was the highlight of the whole night. I haven’t heard this one in ages, it’s one of my top five favorite Mraz songs, and I’ve never heard him play it acoustic like this before. It has a whole different feel without the full swell of a band – not quite as orgasmic, but still incredible.)

After this one Mraz said, “Some of that song, I have no idea what it’s about,” which made everyone chuckle, but he continued with, “But I lose myself in it.” And then he talked about how the best songs are ones that you can lose yourself in.

• Love for a Child

And then he stood up and welcomed Raining Jane back to the stage, talking about the importance of women. And that brought us to:

• The Woman I Love

Then there was a little story about how they all met at a college event for a biannual sescatarian? Sequesterian? Vagitarian? He made up a few new words that should make it into the OED, and then they played:

• Lucky (Instead of the usual duet though, this time it was a four-way, with three of the Janes singing the female part together. He also worked a little Bell Biv Devoe (“Smack it up, flip it, rub it down!”) and Spandau Ballet (“Ah ah ah ahh ahh, I know this much is true”) in at the end.)

I love story time with Mraz, and here he treated us to one about how he plays a song writing game with some people each week. Everyone is given a word or phrase and they have to write a song including it by Sunday night. The phrase he was given: “I wish the wind would blow me”.  And that gave us:

• Coyotes

The next Mraz songwriting story: “I wrote the lyrics to this song while I was peeing. It’s true.”

• NEW – It’s Gonna Be a Good Day/Hello

Unfortunately, knowing the circumstances during which he was inspired, some of the lyrics kind of sounded like he wrote a song to his penis. (“Hello!”) And realizing this he giggled throughout the song and said, “Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”

And then the avocado throwing began. Apparently a big wind knocked hundreds of avocados out of his trees, and after having a crew of friends help pick them up and take them to food banks and anywhere they could get rid of them, he still had enough to bring to Santa Cruz to share. They were very ripe and it looked like a lot of guacamole was made during the evening, sometimes on people’s clothes.

• Frank D. Fixer
• NEW – Back to the Earth (Teaching us the chorus for this one, Mraz said “We’re all gonna do do together.” And do do do we did.)

Knowing that Santa Cruz would have an environmentally responsible crowd, Mraz asked who in the audience was into composting. Then he asked a woman in the front row who had her hand up, “Would you mind taking our compost home?” And he gave her a paper bag of food scraps they had saved.” I wonder if she saved any of it.

• A Beautiful Mess

Mraz introduced the next one by saying, “I wrote this song hoping the Bee Gees would sing it with me.” If he can’t get them he should just have Hanson do it. They’re pretty much the Bee Gees of a new generation. See?

Zac Hanson even has Bee Gees hair.

He also mentioned that the song was written in Brazil, and mused on the way that people from Brazil always seem to have a Brazilian flag with them to wave around.

• Be Honest With Me

And then we had a sitar solo by Becky Who Otherwise Looked Totally Unimpressed By the Whole Event! Yay Becky!

• 93 Million Miles (with sitar!)
• Only Human

More avocado throwing

• NEW – When My Life Falls Apart/3 Little Things

More avocados. “They’re good for the gentlemen. Increase the testosterone.”

• Details in the Fabric (Love, love, love this one live. It just calms my soul to hear him singing, “Everything will be fine.” The way he sings it, so confident and reassuring, makes me think it really will be.)
• NEW – You Can Rely On Me
• I Won’t Give Up

Encore:

• NEW – Take the Long Way
• I’m Yours (Like it’s never been played before, which is good, because I’m really over the radio version. Not that the live version was ever as straightforward as the radio version, but this was a completely new take on it, which I loved.)

And that was it. It was a fantastic night, a really different feel with the female band, and Mraz looked and sounded as good as ever. I hope they get back on the road this summer for a full tour so I have an excuse to travel around and see some Mraz friends and shows in other cities.

Sleeping to dream,
Lisa

Jason Mraz at the HP Pavilion, San Jose, September 28, 2012: Set List

Welcome to San Jose! This was my second and last show of the tour – no crazy cross-country jaunts this time to see him all over the place. I used my vacation time to go to Scotland and visit a boy instead, which you can’t argue with. Check him out:

Jason started the show by coming out in a San Jose Sharks jersey to introduce Christina Perri. I’m not a big hockey fan (unless it’s college hockey – Go BU!), but the local crowd loved it.

Christina Perri made me laugh again when she introduced a song by talking about how she wrote it when she was 17 and dreaming about someday playing with Jason Mraz. And now she’s touring with him, “So let’s dream up some new dreams, then never never never give up on that dream.”

And then she plays this super angry, depressing song. Yay for hopes and dreams!

Jason’s set started out a bit quiet, and I wonder if that was why so many people were sitting down. Looking around the arena it was like people in other sections were watching a play instead of going to a concert, and energy seemed low. Could be the venue itself, as the design is great for ice hockey, not so great for live music.

1.  The World As I See It
2. Everything Is Sound
3. Remedy (The crowd started to show a little life here)
4-6? Make It Mine, which turned into Live High for about 30 seconds, then Butterfly. (This was a weird part just because it was a medley, which made me think of a Vegas act doing The Songs of Jason Mraz, or like Jason was covering himself. I was also a little surprised he didn’t use Live High to show a picture of Obama like he did four years ago. Maybe he’s feeling less political these days.)

7. Who’s Thinking About You Now?
8. Song for a Friend
9. It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Yes, the Mr. Rogers song. He introduced it as “The oldest song I know about the environment.”)
10. Lucky
11-12. Clockwatching (Which he started out playing on his own, which is how I like him best.) and that turned into Living in the Moment
13. Plane (I really, really love the way he’s playing it now, from the beat box opening to the way all hell breaks loose as it ramps up, lights and video and everything. It just gets increasingly bizarre and artsy, but fantastic. Also noticed “Starbucks cup” changed to “coffee cup”, so maybe he got tired of giving free endorsements.)
14. You Are Loved? (Don’t think I’ve heard this before. He said it’s a new song he wrote with Mona, and it’s about death. So there was a lot of sitting going on around here as the song was kind of a bummer.)

Next there was a small break as Jason had everyone take a couple of deep breaths together. “Now, at the very least, you can say tonight’s show was breathtaking.” I love that he’s never stopped being goofy.

15. Beautiful Mess

16-18. I’m Yours, with a sing along, and then it turned into Somewhere Over the Rainbow, which turned into Up (Or what I think of as The Gene Wilder Song.)

19. You Fckn Did It with Mona, who really does kick some serious ass. She seems to have 120% the energy of a normal human being, and looks like she’s having the time of her life, every, single, moment.

Then Jason did get a little political asking people to vote Yes on 37 for improved food labeling and thanking California for fighting for marriage equality. Yeah, we’re trying.

20. Frank D Fixer

21. The Hidden Track/I’m Coming Over (Just like he did in Atlanta, this was done in a cozy, acoustic way with the band all gathering around him at the front of the stage. Totally fantastic, but just made me miss the days when he played whole shows like that.)

22. Going Up the Country (A song by the American blues-rock group Canned Heat)

Encore
Remember when Jason used to end a show with All Night Long or a big fun song that made you want to dance and sing? Yeah, this time he talked about being inspired by the puppet show Sifl and Olly and the time they interviewed the planet Mars to ask what happened to it. And Mars told them to just keep doing what we’ve been doing to Earth and we’ll find out. And then he played a “pessimistic song about the likelihood of us doing nothing”:
23. Collapsible Plans (although I think he should call it Burn This Mother Down)

It was actually a pretty rollicking, fun song for being about the slow destruction of our environment.

24. Distance, with Christina Perri (It’s on her album, “Lovestrong”.)
25. 93 Million Miles
26. I Won’t Give Up (I know this is the one all over the radio now, but man, what a dull one to end on.)

Ok, I know this doesn’t all sound like a rave review, but I did enjoy the show. As always, I left the show feeling refreshed, like my soul just had a good scrubbing. It makes me sort of understand why people go to church.

I think that with so much material at his disposal now, you’re never going to get to hear all the songs you want, and I was very lucky when I saw him in Atlanta that he did cover a lot of my favorites, including Tonight, Not Again and Sleeping to Dream. You don’t always get Dynamo or Coyotes or Rand McNally, and that’s ok.

I do really miss Bushwalla though. I think of all the tours in the past 10 years, the one they did together with the Makepeace Brothers is my favorite. It just seemed like they were all having so much fun that they didn’t want to stop playing at the end of the night. The venues were also smaller back then, so the crowd had more densely-packed energy.

Still, I can’t wait to see what Mr. Mraz does next.

Enjoy the midnight serenade,
Lisa

Jason Mraz at Aaron’s Ampitheater at Lakewood, Atlanta, August 18, 2012: Set List

Pretty good seats.

Wow, has it really been two years since I got creative on this blog? Amazing.

So after not seeing Mr. Mraz for a very long time I made plans to fly from San Francisco to Atlanta to visit a friend and take her to her first Mraz show. We hit massive rain on the way there Saturday night, but the skies cleared up just as we got to the venue, and it turned into a decent night for a show. Still hot and humid by my California standards, but delightful compared to the days before that.

Jason walked out all cool and casual to introduce Christina Perri, and I’ve always liked that about him. He doesn’t need to make a big rock star entrance, he’s just a guy, hanging out, waiting to play. And he likes to say nice things about the friends he plays with.

I only knew Perri from the “Twilight” song, and I didn’t expect to like her, but she rocked a lot harder than I thought she would. Her set was a good time.

Jason and band took the stage around 8:45, and the new lineup still looks weird to me. I miss Eric Hinojosa and Adam King. And it’s weird to see someone other than Toca next to Jason, but then the Grooveline Horns do a great job, and the chick who’s filling Toca’s shoes was pretty bad ass. She had a ton of energy and was really fubn to watch.

The set list:

1. Remedy
2. Living in the Moment
3. Plane (Possibly the best live version I’ve heard him do, or I was just so happy to hear it live I forgot past versions. This one had a beatbox beginning that I really liked.)
4. Be Honest
5. Only Human (In my dream set, he’d swap this out for “Coyotes”, but what can you do?)
6. Lucky
7. Sleeping to Dream (Woo hoo! Old stuff! And as if that wasn’t good enough, he followed it with…)
8. Tonight, Not Again (At this point, almost everyone in front of me sat down because they didn’t know it, which is a shame, because Mraz rocked its socks off. If you want a song with a … climax… this is it.)

Chatting with the audience about what he’s learned about love. “Love is simply… sharing.” Which leads us into

9. Frank D. Fixer
10. The Woman I Love
11. Please Don’t Tell Her
12. A Beautiful Mess
13. 93 Million Miles
14. You Fckn Did It (with Mona, the female Toca)
15. I’m Coming Over/ The Hidden Track (This was done with Jason sitting in a chair and the rest of the band gathered around him, like they were playing in his living room or something. Lovely.)

Jason and friends playing “I’m Coming Over”

Mraz feet.

And then Jason introduces his super band, who tonight are known as “Fellopian Voice”.

Next, someone in the crowd shouts a question at him as he takes a drink between songs. “What’s in the jug?” he repeats. “Tears.”

16. Butterfly
17. Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours
18. I’m Yours (Didja see that coming? Didja?) with the Three Little Birds bit and singalong at the end

Encore:
19. Distance (with Christina Perri – it’s on her album “Lovestrong”)
20. I Won’t Give Up

I was really happy to hear the older songs and thought the night was a good mix of his work. He has such a huge catalog now that you’ll never get to hear everything you want, but this show came pretty close.

You are A.W.E.S.O.M.E.,
Lisa

Time to Get Out the Jason Mraz Holiday Video

I’ve been completely MIA on this blog this year, but come Christmas time, I get all nostalgic for the holiday video Jason made for us a couple of years ago.

In case you missed it the last two holidays, or even if you watched it a couple dozen times last December, please take a moment to enjoy Jason’s holiday message. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen him do. And that’s saying something.

Put your balls into it,

Lisa

P.S. – It’s not quite as good as closed captioning, but if you want to have a sing along with friends, here are the words/lyrics to Jason’s Merry Holidays video/song.

Hi, and merry, jolly times. I’m Jason Mraz.

You know, as an international traveler, I have a really special opportunity to give unique gifts this season.

For instance, for my elderly acquaintances, I give the gift of life, by paying for their medication, cheaply, in foreign countries.

My sister’s going to love these Ritz-Carlton towels, and slippers.

Mom loves lotion and soaps.

For dad, it’s another year’s subscription to Sky Mall.

For my brother, I just got myself this new iPod. Why don’t you join me in the singing of this timeless Christmas classic?

Happy Christmas time

Happy Christ-mas time

What an awesome time of year

To celebrate Christmas cheer

Wherever you go

You may find lots of snow

Unless you’re livin’ in the southern hemisphere

Merry holidays

Merry cou-ple of days

What a wintery way to say

I’m not workin’

It’s a time for you to be you

And a time to go and see how grandma’s doin’

And maybe she’ll have some money too

And oh yeah, the presents!

The way they overflow

from the belly of the Christmas tree

And oh ho ho ho ho, here comes Santa

To say the very best things in life

You can have for free

Everybody, put your balls into it!

Merry holidays

Merry couple of days

Make it a Nat-King-Bing-Crosby-Charles-Dickensy kind of thing

So whatever you’re planning on giving this holiday season, give from the heart. But most importantly, make sure you have a merry couple of days.