Jason Mraz in Brooklyn

Jason Mraz in Brooklyn on his Still Yours Tour is filled with deep cuts, heartfelt stories, singalongs and laughs, plus a warm opening set from Gregory Page.

Gregory Page

Gregory Page opened the show with a microphone, a guitar, and a sweet energy about him. Page played a few songs and then stopped to speak to the crowd explaining he comes from a family of musicians and has been writing songs since he was four years old. He said the best part of songwriting is playing songs with your friends, which led to the artist welcoming a couple people out onto the stage. One of those friends just so happened to be the night’s headliner, Jason Mraz, who’d be supporting the opener by playing bass for him, along with musician Chaska Potter.

Page told fans that years ago he’d heard Mraz play and had approached him asking if he’d open one of his shows, which led to Mraz’s first ever gig. Mraz was beaming with pride for his long time friend throughout the whole set, so much so that between every song Page performed, Mraz held up Page’s vinyl record and repeated the line “you are listening to selections from Gregory Page.” It was comical how many times he promoted the musician’s albums. Mraz also had something to clarify – “for those of you who were expecting Greg Page from the Australian band The Wiggles, this is American based Gregory Page. But, for those of you who were expecting The Wiggles”… and then the three musicians onstage proceeded to wiggle from head to toe to the audience’s amusement. Page and Mraz had tons of banter throughout the set, Mraz constantly hyping up Page and his work. When it was time for the opener to finish out the set by himself, Mraz left him with a final goodbye of “It’s been lovely playing with you, but now we’re going to leave you to play with yourself” to which Page replied “Thank you Jason. It’s always nice to play with yourself in front of thousands of people.”

Gregory Page chose to “close [his] program with a love song.” Page has a warm, endearing stage presence and provided the venue with uplifting, soft, melodic tunes. His performance was a great way to begin the night.

Jason Mraz

On an empty stage, with nothing but a projection of a stained glass window behind him and a guitar in hand, Jason Mraz began to sing his 2001 track “Galaxy” and I knew this show felt special. The night’s setlist had some deep throwbacks, courtesy of Instagram’s request link posted earlier in the day, including “Butterfly” prior to which Mraz explained that at the time he’d written the track, he’d only ever been in heterosexual relationships, but now he likes to make the song gender neutral, changing sister, you’ve got it all to I love it all. “Happy Pride month everyone.” “You’re in the greatest city in the world and you could do so many other things, most of which don’t involve your pants, so thanks for zipping up your trousers and coming to hear a human being sing.”

During “I’m Yours” everyone in the venue was swaying with their loved ones, hands on their hearts and singing along. The artist played an extended version of the hit song which included ramblings about love, feeling music in your soul and included a call and response section to get the audience involved. As the song ended, Mraz thanked his audience and jokingly requested that everyone “please be seated” to a crowd of people already all in chairs. A bit later we listened to the singer tell a story about a friend he’d grown up with who had been diagnosed with cancer. A younger Jason couldn’t understand ‘why he has his life and I have mine?’ He remembers his friend deciding “I’m not going to worry my life away, I’m going to enjoy every moment. The remedy is the experience.” “His birthday is July 4th and he still celebrates it every year. I wrote this song for my friend Charlie.” This of course segued into a performance of “The Remedy” which was all the more meaningful knowing the full context behind the song. Together in harmony the room came alive with the lyric I won’t worry my life away.

Quotable Quotes

In a roundabout way of introducing the track “Little Time”, Mraz recounted “[meeting] a young person recently and they said “Are you Jason Mraz?” the singer popped his collar and confidently replied “Yeah.” “My dad listens to you!” As the audience winced in commiseration, Mraz noted “What I’ve been noticing is the passing of time and what I notice is that I shave my ears now. This is a song about that.”

“I’m not always a positive person, but I like to write songs about hope for friends. I try to write songs that cheer myself up because, while doing this [career] is a great pleasure, sometimes it’s hard to find the inspiration, so I consider myself an Optimistic Pessimist – “I’m an optimistic pessimist, I got a pretty good feeling that things are gonna turn out shitty.. “No they’re not.. but they probably will.”

Toward the end of the set, Mraz played a surprise cover of Mr. Rogers’ “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” commenting that it is the oldest song he knows and perhaps why he is who he is. Mr. Rogers’ theme transitioned into a beautiful performance of “Lucky” where, at the moment the number typically turns into a duet, Mraz announced “[Ladies and gentleman, my friend Colbie Caillat].” The crowd roared with excitement as the singer turned his attention offstage to welcome his duet partner, until, that is, Mraz turned back to microphone to add “could not be with us this evening” the audience groaned and the singer retorted “You didn’t let me finish!” As the audience laughed and took in the humorous disappointment of the massive fakeout, Jason Mraz sang his counterpart’s verse.

Closing

The artist thanked the crowd and left the stage before returning for his encore. “You just applauded my bathroom break,” he joked. For the final goodbye of the evening, Mraz brought back out Gregory Page and Chaska Potter to sing “One Hell of a Memory” Now it’s time to say goodnight, let us turn out the lights and bid fare thee well to good friends.

30 years ago, Jason Mraz moved away from NYC to pursue his career as a musician. “I had the idea that I could do this and I fuckin did it.” This New York stop on the Still Yours Tour was a nostalgia trip, full of silly stories, heartfelt moments, scatting, guitar riffs and music spanning 20+ years of discography. It was beautiful to witness the spectrum of fans in attendance, couples holding each other, parents with their kids, friends. Audience members so passionately sang along with hands in the air like this was a religious experience. It was palpable how deeply these songs resonate with people.