Wednesday, August 29, 2012

The Jason Mraz Fan Club for Middle Aged Rockers.

Karl and I took Mary, and her fabulous pal Amna, to see the remarkable Jason Mraz at Riverbend last night.
Jason was in town as a part of his Love is a Four Letter Word tour.
Don't you just LOVE that title?
Mary and Amna in classic concert pose.
The concert was completely
A-MRAZ-ING!
(my own word, believe it or not)
I love a man who can rock the ukulele...
But before I go on about the fabulous Jason of August 2012....
allow me tell you about my relationship with Jason for historical reference.
Ten years ago Karl came home and mentioned that as he was driving home he heard this really cool and funny kid interviewed on NPR... a guy named Jason, with an usual and short last name.
Turns out, I heard the very same interview, and had already bought tickets to see him at the Taft as he was coming to town soon.
Weeks later, we were sitting at the Taft and noticed that we were likely the only grown ups there who were not chaperoning their jr. high daughters to the concert. While maybe we should have been a bit  embarrassed to be the two oldest fans in the house, we didn't care one bit because Jason was awesome and we fell in love with him and his music. 
 And for pictorial + historical reference, here is Mr. A-Z circa 2002.

 His show was a great mix of pop and rap,  with complicated and clever lyrics... the sort of music that really no one should be too mature for and we were no exception.
Jason played his hits from his first and only album at the time, Curbside Prophet and The Remedy... we enjoyed those songs tremendously. After he played his wonderful show, he thanked Karl and I and all of our new junior high pals for being supportive, then jumped off the front of the stage, ran through the crowd and back to the lobby, where he stayed, signing and selling copies of his CD.
"What a charismatic, talented and enterprising young musician!"
Of course I immediately signed up to be a devoted member of the Jason Mraz fan club...
how could I not?

And so when Jason played a sold out show of 20,000 and told the crowd that Cincinnati was his largest show on his tour, we were happy for him and felt kind of cool about our long standing fan club participation.
 And while his early shows were completely charming, the concert that he has put together for his Love is a Four Letter Word is completely outstanding. He now boasts a horn section and a percussionist and...wait for it
... a cool, hipster violinist!
All this made for a high energy, completely fun and unforgettable concert.
Posing in our concert tees with two smart, fun, and very tolerant, teenagers...Amna and Mary.
The other great thing was that Karl and I were no longer the only regular aged people in the audience. There was a big mix in the ages of his fans... from those super cool junior high kids to us middle aged rockers, and then beyond... we all enjoyed every musical moment.      
 Jason and I post show...
One of us oozes musical cool and talent.

1 comment:

  1. I saw you at the concert! My daughters, sister-in-law and I were working the Reverb water bottle ping pong booth. We were delighted to represent some other than teen ages at the show, too! It was such a great concert!

    ~Christa

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