Jason Mraz in Concert

Standing in front of the Hawaii Theater last night waiting for Bart to park the car I said to Linda, “I think we are the oldest people here.” Just then two perky Jason Mraz fans came running up to Linda to ask how she did her hair. Linda had wrenched it into braided twists on each side of her head and these youngsters were fascinated. After the examination they wanted to know if we were here to see Jason. No, we told them. We came to see  Makana, a young Hawaiian singer and slack string guitar virtuoso who last winter appeared at a Barty party and played a short concert on the lanai along with   Alessandra Belloni, a world renown tambourine player. You may think I am joking but she is renown, yes, playing one of those gypsy instruments (and other talents). It was quite an evening followed the next night by an impromptu gig at the edge of Waimea Bay.
Anyway, these two young ladies began to wax about Jason Mraz, his lyrics, his playing and, most of all, his voice.
It was definitely date night in Chinatown. The liquor was flowing and, I suspect, the coke was being snorted. The couples in front of us could not sit still and were constantly doing gyrations in their seat to whisper loudly to each other. The guy next to Linda was groping his gal. The two single females behind us were dressed to kill and buzzing like little honey bees. In fact, there were lots of single women in the audience in pairs and trios. Jason, it turns out, attracts the ladies. He sings the love songs along with what might be called “white boy geek rap.” I’d never heard of him before. Now I own one of his albums and have ordered another. I believe I’ve confessed my lack of musical knowledge before, but I know what I like.
The opening act was a slim brunette, wearing flip-flops who sang standing behind her black guitar. Her name was Tristan Prettyman Tristan Prettyman and I’m going to order her CD as well. It sold out during her performance.
Makana, was something of a disappointment for us. He plays slack string better than anyone but his song selection was strange. However, he did play a number on some kind of Chinese instrument that was terrific and was accompanied on another with a poetry jam poet that was interesting and on a third by a great digereedoo player, a fellow who, as it happens, had cooked our lunch at the Paradise Cafe a few days before. At intermission the digereedoo player was blissed out saying it had been his dream to play on that stage.
I don’t like to go to music concerts. This crowd was particularly restless, getting up, going out. Shouting at the performers. Screaming song requests. Generally being obnoxious. However, when Jason took the stage they settled just a bit. He wandered out wearing rolled up jeans a non descript shirt and a red and white baseball cap. These were his fans and at the beginning of every number they drowned out the opening line with shouts and exclamations. The guy has an amazing voice which you have to hear to believe. He can sing like a pop star, rap like a rapper and even has a pure counter tenor range that is astounding. He scats and hums, makes funny noises and other sounds I can’t describe all while playing a pretty good guitar and streaming interesting lyrics. (I know they are interesting because I read some of them on his web site http://www.jasonmraz.com/ this morning. I happen to have lyrical dyslexia and really can't hear most words that are sung). He has a great sense of humor and doesn’t take himself seriously. “I don’t know what to say about these songs,” he said once as introduction. He stopped the ubiquitous audience clapping by changing  the rhythm of his playing and rapped some sound instructions to the techies. When one overwrought young lady screamed, “I want you!” he said, “Now there’s a girl with low expectations. She wants a skinny white guy who can’t surf who sings like a girl.” At the end of his set Jason Mraz stepped out in front of the mike, moved to the front end of the stage and sang unamplified. That quieted the audience for a minute and was the best part of the show.
After the show, we caught Makana for a photo.