Jason Mraz in Concert at Converse
Jason Mraz will headline a Sept. 15 concert on the back campus of Converse College. Joining Mraz on the bill are The Working Title and Doug Jones. In the event of rain, the concert will be held in Converse’s Twichell Auditorium. General admission tickets are $25 and can be secured by calling (864) 596-9725. Gates will open at 6 p.m. and Doug Jones will take to the stage at 7 p.m.
Hailing from Mechanicsville, Virginia, Mraz is an eclectic artist with multiple and varied stylistic influences, including pop, rock, folk, jazz, country and hip hop/rap. He has played with various artists, including The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Dave Matthews Band, Paula Cole, John Popper, Makana, Alanis Morissette, The Ohio Players and Jewel.
Mraz’s studio efforts have been very well received. “Waiting for My Rocket to Come” (2002) soared to #55 in the US charts while the 2005 release “Mr. A-Z” reached #5.
He has built a coast to coast legion of loyal fans who follow his comings-and-goings via the Internet, devouring his humorous notations of just where he fits on pop’s self-important pecking order: “How many times does someone like you look at his tongue in the mirror?” Mraz asks himself online. “Twenty, at least,” he answers. “That’s four times an hour during the five I’m awake.”
Such irreverence easily translates to his concerts, where Mraz says the key is keeping the audience ‘in’ the show. “I said to myself if I’m going to pursue this as a career, I want to inject some humor in this, get some poetry into the songs and make sure the audience stays interested. I remember I saw Dave Matthews when I was still in high school, and I was just struck by how lively he came across. It was like: ‘OK, so you don’t have to be boring when you play the guitar.’ When I got to San Diego, it wasn’t like I knew exactly what I was going to do, but through the countless shows, I found out it was more fun to keep the audience engaged. We do so much audience participation and let the audience in our just about most of our secrets. We’re constantly mixing things up on each other as players, never doing the same song the same way twice. I tried the best way I could to get that feeling on the record.”