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Concert Reviews and Interviews: Jason Mraz & Liz Phair
 


Cleveland Agora
Cleveland, OH
August 06, 2003

Click here for Joe Del Re's review of Jason Mraz's Waiting for My Rocket to Come.


From minute-one when he took the stage on a Wednesday night, you could tell Jason Mraz meant business. Looking lean and mean in a shirt that the dude might as well have woken up in and sporting his trademark "trucker" mesh cap, Mraz and his band tore into "Too Much Food," a track off his latest release, Waiting For My Rocket To Come.

From there, he never looked back, as Jason and his amazingly talented band played an inspired set over the next two hours. Sandwiched between radio friendly hits such as "The Remedy," "Curb Site Prophet" and a very cool club mix-version of "Sleep All Day," Mraz treated the capacity crowd to new originals, jazz-inspired improvisations and scat-solos galore. The songs traversed between raucous and spirited reggae to slow and ethereal ballads (which were great, because some random girl just started dancing and grinding with me during one tune…which is most rock!) 

Mraz's musicianship is eclipsed only by his vocal prowess, which he displayed right off the starting block, engaging the crowd with call-and-answer scats and emotion-drenched yelps that drove the meaning of the songs home. He also took great effort to give credit to the members of his backing band, introducing them "bachelorette" style. One performer in particular, Toca Riviera, Mraz's percussionist and writing partner, was spotlighted frequently throughout the evening. Toca is responsible for a considerable amount of the unique rhythm structure that has become trademarks of Mraz's songs. A talented song writer, great performer and backed by one hell of a brilliant band, Jason Mraz is one artist poised to produce great music for years to come. 

Alt-Rock queen Liz Phair opened the show, making the rounds in support of her new release, titled simply Liz Phair . Touring for the first time since the birth of her son, and enduring criticism for collaborating on her new album with the Avril Lavigne writing team, "The Matrix," one would think that she'd be out to prove something. That didn't seem the case as Phair, sporting a hot pink belly shirt and Kangrol-brand hat, paraded out her band of pretty boys (was that Pete Yorn on lead guitar?), playing songs from both the new album as well as some of her previous hits. The energy and enthusiasm simply were not there and Phair, an excellent singer and songwriter in her own right, appeared to struggle through the new material, particularly the ready-for-radio release, "Why Can't I," which seemed to be noticeably out of her vocal comfort range. She was much more at home on tunes like "Polyester Bride," from 1998's whitechocolatespaceegg

Though critics will say she is at her best when she's singing about how much she loves oral sex, or the independence of her woman-hood, for Phair, at 36, these topics seem contrived and forced. No one cares that your young son is confused about who you're dating, or that you love to hook up with younger, PlayStation-playing guys. And by the way, what's the point of wearing a sexy belly shirt if you're going to hide your stomach behind a guitar the whole show (a guitar that she only played half the time)? At what point do lyrics like "I want to fuck you 'till you're blue" simply lose their shock value? While Phair's new album is a departure from her tried and true musical style, in her attempt to assimilate into the Clear Channel radio-world, it is her insipid lyrics and boring stage show that may keep her from selling more CDs. Her portion of the show was very disappointing. 

She is damn sexy, though…even for an old broad. 


~Joe Del Re 
jdelre@bullz-eye.com 


 


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