Jason Mraz @ The Forum, Sydney(03/08/06)

Wed 9th Aug, 2006 in Gig Reviews

Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz, has the ‘thing’. Smart, articulate, some serious pipes and the women, well they love him. After seeing him at The Forum, in Sydney, the other evening, (a great venue for a gig by the way), you could feel the HER-mones from miles away.

Strolling up to the venue before the doors open and I could not believe the sight that met me. There were easily 300-400 people lined up to get into the gig. Here it was a school night and all these twenty-somethings were out to see their hero. The buzz on the line was bright and giddy and the overwhelming majority of people in attendance were of the female persuasion. What does this guy have going for him?

So as the crowd shuffled in, I had a look at the venue and found a beer or two or three.

When the star hit the stage, the swoon factor went off the scale. This is quite a step-up from when Jason played his last gig in Sydney at the cosy Vanguard in Newtown. Tonight he had 1,500 or so people wrapped around his words and smile from, well, A-Z. And he played quite a few songs off the Mr. A-Z release and others, and joked with the audience and was the consummate showman with an intellect.

‘Did You Get My Message’, ‘Bella Luna’, and other tracks were well received. He also touched on some older tracks from his 2002 release,Waiting For My Rocket to Come. These included ‘The Remedy’ and ‘Curbside Prophet’. Jason was joined on stage during this acoustic evening by Toca on percussion, particularly the djembe. Toca was accompanied by a gnome and the story behind that, well who the hell gnomes. The third member of the trio, well, I lost his name in the screams.

Jason is a delightful middle of the road artist with traces of Jackson Browne and James Taylor floating from his vocal chords. Easy to listen to and easy on the eyes as he kinda looked like a young Hugh Grant from my wife’s  vantage point.

And when a young woman from the crowd voiced her amorous intentions, he said something about her experiencing a foursome with the band. She protested that he was the one and he said , “Okay, the gigs over…” like he was heading out the door with her. He has the charm.
He came , he saw, he conquered.