As I walked along Fitzroy Street to the Prince with my American friend, I asked ‘is it really that uncool to have a crush on Jason Mraz?’ Admittedly, we were giving up a Monday night to go to the gig, however I like to think I was reasonably self aware about the whole thing. (In fact, my inner rock chick was having a bit of a fit.)
Opening for Mraz was Emily Ulman, a Melbourne singer songwriter who made little impression on the crowd. Her sound was nice and pretty, but ultimately she didn’t stand out from others in the ever-growing genre.
After a quick turnaround, Mraz literally spun onto the stage to the screams of the sell out crowd. And it wasn’t just the girls in the crowd who were screaming.
Mraz opened with what he termed an ‘obscure song’, which he explained was a request from a girl he met in Adelaide. And the girls sighed. It was in this first song that we had a taste of what I like to call dirty Jason (DJ). DJ slipped in lyrics that raised my eyebrows as he massaged the neck of his guitar. Did anyone else notice that? I looked around but people seemed just to be bopping away and sipping their lemon ruskis.
In what was a marathon two hour set, Mraz played a crowd pleasing selection of his two albums, ‘Waiting for my rocket to come’ and ‘Mr A-Z’. He interspersed this with witty and at times sarcastic banter, questioning the people who insisted on constantly taking photos and engaging the crowd with ease and style.
While his frat-geek-rap-whiteboy-hiphop worked on some levels, I’m not all that sure that it is the level he intended. I don’t know if I’m just telling myself this, but it seemed that he was taking the piss out of it all, yet half the audience just didn’t get it.
Despite all this, it was in his ballads that he really excelled. Mraz truly has an amazing voice and songs such as ‘Plane’ were heartbreaking. Even the cynic in me melted somewhat at his ‘Life is Wonderful’, which has a melody that somehow saves it from being a cliché.
There were many singalong moments, subtle dodgy comments and much heckling. I think my favourite shout-out from the crowd was ‘we love you Mraz-a-mataz’. Tracks including ‘Bella Luna’, ‘Did you get my message’ and ‘I’ll do anything’ received rapturous applause from the ever swooning crowd.
When Mraz returned to the stage for an encore, he brought with him a guest. The fellow’s name was Paul. We heard how the band found Paul in the urinal, they compared ‘members’, appreciated each other’s rhythm and then decided to bring him up on stage with them. Apparently Paul was the representative not only of the audience but also the spirit of Melbourne.
As Mraz began the encore, Paul bopped away in the background until suddenly it was time for him to sing a verse, personalised for his girlfriend who was soon to become his fiancé. As she stepped up on stage, teary eyed, champagne appeared from backstage and Mraz finished off the song as the crowd cheered. And yes, I joined in. I think we can all guess what their wedding waltz is going to be…
As we walked outside into the chilly Melbourne night, it seemed somewhat appropriate that a group of Japanese tourists stood smiling for photos in front of the entrance to the Prince in their ‘Mraz down under’ t-shirts.
