UB- B.O.B., Bruno Mars, and Jason Mraz

On September 15th, 2010 my wonderful roommate and I took at trip from Buffalo State College to the distant land of UB (The University of Buffalo) in order to see my favorite musical artist in the whole wide world- Jason Mraz.  It was UB's Fall Fest 2010 and B.O.B., Bruno Mars, and Jason Mraz came to perform.  It was free for all UB students and I was wildly jealous, but it was still worth every cent as far as I am concerned.  The doors opened at 5:30 p.m. and the actual performance began at 6:30.  The opening act was a musician by the name of Robert Francis.  He was very good even though he was not as big of a name as the other three.  He had a quiet, almost humble way of creating music.  To some it could be viewed as dull, but I felt that it was kind of refreshing to open on a more quiet note and work the way up to the more adrenaline powered music.  

Robert Francis

Robert Francis was followed by B.O.B.  As a separate entity from Bruno Mars, I found B.O.B. to be pretty unimpressive, with the exception of his well-known hit "Airplanes."  It is possibly that my negative opinion of his performance might be largely due to the fact that I am not a huge fan of rap.  Overall, however, I felt that the only songs that were really worth hearing were the songs that he performed with other artists, in short the songs that helped him to make it big.  

Bruno Mars and B.O.B.

I found Bruno Mars' performance to be a significant improvement.  He seemed to have a similar situation where the best songs were the ones that everyone knew and the others were much less impressive. I was surprised to realize that I knew a lot of the popular songs that he performed seeing as I don't usually care much for pop music.  The two audience favorites were probably "Nothin' on you", and "Billionaire" both featuring the rap stylings of B.O.B.  I think that what was appealing about Bruno Mars was not simply the fact that his music was catchy, but in addition he came off as a very charismatic individual.  Who wouldn't like a good looking guy with charisma?

Bruno Mars

Finally, the grande finale, the most impressive of them all- Jason Mraz.  I was surprised to find that most of the UB students had very little appreciation for his music and all that in encompasses.  It was actually quite frustrating for me because it seemed like most of the other students were there to see him perform his hit song- "I'm Yours", and could care less about listening to the brand new music that he had just come out with.  My roommate and I were singing along with all the songs that we knew and dancing along with all the songs that we didn't know.  Overall I feel that it was a great performance delivered to the wrong kind of crowd.  All of the new songs that he performed can be found now on his new album "Life Is Good- EP."  Most of them utilized a wide variety of instruments, including some really groovy sounding horns, and had a very upbeat Reggae kind of a feel to them.  In addition to new music, he played a number of his other great songs, mostly off of his last album entitled "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things."  

Jason Mraz, in action

In my opinion, Jason Mraz has the most impressive live performance of any artist that I have ever seen.  Often times with artists you find that you are slightly disappointed with their live performance because it is more difficult for them to tweak the sound in order to make it sound close to "perfect" than on a recording.  In contrast to that rule, I find that Mraz' live performances are far more impressive than his recorded version of songs a majority of the time.  One of the last songs that Jason Mraz performed was a song entitled "San Disco Reggaefornia" from his new album.  During this number he called up two members of the audience to come on the stage and dance with him.  The guy who he called up honestly had some serious moves.  The women, on the other hand, was kind of heavy-set but there was no question that being up there- she was having the time of her life.  Every women at the performance, myself included, was extremely jealous of her when Jason Mraz came up behind her and started borderline grinding with her.  Unfortunately, I can't say that I have even met Jason Mraz, however I feel that he must have a big heart to give that girl the opportunity to come up on the stage and experience something that she would probably never forget for as long as she lived.  

He finished off his set by performing his most popular song, "I'm Yours" for a cheering crowd.  There you go closed minded radioheads- the song that you've all been waiting for.

Mraz- "I'm Yours"