Jason Mraz rocked our socks off!

Ready for some Mraz!

Ok, I kept my socks on, and so did Tim, but WOW! We've seen Jason Mraz in concert before in Colorado Springs but I could go watch him every week and never get tired. He's funny, happy, upbeat and gets everyone in the crowd involved, even the people who just stand there most of the time. On top of that, he's an amazing live singer. I'm not sure if everyone has had the experience of watching a band or artist they love and realizing that they are absolutely terrible live. (One person told me Nickelback wasn't so hot.) Jason Mraz..not like that at all. He even throws in some opera, which is just crazy.

Our night started out with a short drive and a long wait. We sat in the turn lane to get into the Spirit Event Center for at least 30 minutes and by the time we got to a parking space it was 7:30, which is when the concert started. We weren't terribly worried since there was an opening act. Pulling into the parking structure prompted Tim to explain to me that they had not used Auto Turn, which is apparently like an engineering video game where you pick a vehicle and then try to turn it into a virtual building to see if the turn radius is wide enough. I'm so glad he loves his job. :)

We walked into darkness and with the help of one of the event staff found our seats, only 10 rows from the stage. The first act was Anya Marina, who was what Tim called "whiney" although I thought she was pretty good. Kind of folksy. She did her version of T.I.'s You Can Have Whatever You Like which I thought was awesome. After she was done there was about a 30 minute break until the Plain White T's came out. They were SO loud, but really fun. They played Hey There Delilah and I was happy. It wasn't a long set, only about 45 minutes, but they were energetic and fun.

The Plain White T's lead singer, Tom.

The funniest thing during the Plain White T's was the flash nazis...the event staff that ran back and forth screaming at people taking pictures. I was glad to have my camera put up at that moment because that woman looked livid. It would have been just as easy for someone to walk on stage in between performances and announce "no flash photography" instead of combing the crowd. By the end of the night they seemed to have given up, both on checking for flashes and checking people's hands to make sure they had stamps. Anyone could have walked in, and probably did.

We knew there would be a bit of a break before Jason Mraz came on so we headed to the bathrooms. Oh my gosh the women's line was looooong. I was lucky and made it in and out rather quickly and met up with Tim, who had found one of his fellow workers from Wallace. I've heard Jordan's name a lot but I've never had a face to put with it. We also got to meet his super sweet girlfriend, Audra, and passed a few minutes chatting away.

Finally we headed in for the main act and, like I already said, we weren't disappointed. He played several of our favorite songs, The Remedy, Live High, Lucky, and of course I'm Yours, which is his big hit right now. During one of the songs his brass trio went into the crowd, which was tons of fun, and during another he had us all dance along.It was fabulous.

He sings with his eyes half-closed most of the time. :)

Take a bow!

At the end of every show he takes pictures of the band members with a Polaroid and then throws them out into the crowd. At the last concert Tim caught a drumstick and this time he caught a picture of the trombone player. I'm not sure how he does it! I thought the tall blond lady in front of us was going to beat him up but she eventually just laughed and asked to look at the picture.

Way to catch that picture, Tim!

After the concert we decided not to fight our way out of the parking structure and instead headed to a bar and grill near the event center for something to eat. We snacked on nachos for about 45 minutes and were totally surprised to see that people were still battling their way out to drive home. The level we were on was almost empty so it was easy for us to get out, we just had to wait a bit to get out at the lower level. Someone got smart and had the police show up to direct traffic (maybe someone complained?) so it went much smoother than when we showed up.

We made it home around 12:15 am, which was almost exactly when I predicted. (I thought probably midnight) We were exhausted but probably not nearly as tired as Connie, who watched Brenden for us. She and Mike took him to the mall where he ate 15 tortillas at El Chicos and played. He feel asleep pretty easily so I'm glad that part was good for her.

All in all, amazing night and a wonderful birthday present. Thank you so much Tim!

For more pictures, please click HERE! :) (they are towards the end of the album)