Jason Mraz -The Vanguard,Sydney (26/03/06)

Mon 1st May, 2006 in Gig Reviews

Quite frankly I was a bit apprehensive of going to see Jason Mraz. It had been three years since I had last seen him and with the lack of time to hit the record store and pick up his new tunes I was hoping it would be just like the old performance back in 2003 where all the songs were somewhat familiar to me…but then again… looking back I remembered, that I didn’t know that much that night either… I guess this is turning out to be a tradition.

The first Vanguard performance showed Mraz and Toca’s sense of humour had not changed introducing themselves by saying “My name is Kevin this is Vanilla Brown and we are a Jason Mraz tribute band” and for the majority of the show the room was full of laughter. The one thing required when watching Jason Mraz is, you have to stay focused – if you don’t pay attention you’ll miss something because he relies on his wordplay (pardon the pun/ double entendre). This man has the skill of working his name into numerous songs including his Elton John cover of ‘Rocket Man’ and has the ability to change the emotion of the song just by changing the lyrics into a punch line. He can get every girl’s attention and have them swooning simply by demonstrating his vocal range. But the best thing about him is his ability to be spontaneous. Walking out onto the stage and relying on the crowd to create the setlist brought classics like ‘You and I’ and ‘Rand McNally’ where he managed to work in Lionel Richie’s ‘Stuck on You’, Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstition’, Michael Jackson’s ‘Startin Something’ and his usual little Elvis ‘Viva Las Vegas’- I think he holds the record for how many covers he fit into the one song!

There was some new songs including ‘Mr. Curiosity’ and the single ‘Geek in the Pink’ but I think the highlight for gig goers would have to have been ‘our’ song. Yes we created a song with Mraz. Taking phrases from the crowd he created a tune that included delightful lines such as ‘Aren’t we just a ray of fuckin’ sunshine’ (courtesy of Toca’s shirt), ‘We’re Happy Little Vegemites’, ‘Go you good thing’, ‘That’s just not cricket’ and even the controversial ‘where the bloody hell are ya?’. After he finished he said that he thinks it will be a big hit in Cambodia.

The second show was generally more mellow, slightly withdrawn and had Mraz wearing his trademark baseball cap, shielding himself from eye contact. I was wondering whether it was the Monday blues but Mraz seemed to have taken on a cold and following advice by taking sudafed had left him playing like Pink Floyd. He even waned into Bob Marley’s ‘One Love’ during ‘I’ll Do Anything’. There were less jokes but the lines that came out were still just as funny and the crowd interaction remained as he created another song with us. Although this time it would not be such an upbeat song like the one from the previous night. This time it had even more delightful phrases including ‘Say hi to your mum for me’ ‘These pretzels are making me thirsty’ and ‘bend over touch your toes I’ll show you where the magic goes’ which Jason liked since ‘it is packaged for success’. Mraz struggled more with this one as he sang ‘I’ve got too many phrases piling on’ but you can tell that he wasn’t entirely happy with the outcome as he said ‘I think we should meet together again and work on this’. The night ended with two classic songs ‘Curbside Prophet’ and a laidback ‘Remedy’ that incorporated another cover- this time Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’. However that was not enough for the fans, so they came back and ended with ‘The Boy’s Gone’ and ‘Life is Wonderful’ which included a lovely trumpet duet. They walked off once more, this time for good- although at least the next time they walk onstage won’t be for another three years since Mraz made a crack about not paying Toca for six months so they can come back here in July. Now ‘that’s just not cricket’. :P