Jason Mraz, 02 Academy, Birmingham

Jason Mraz
02 Academy, Birmingham
Review and photos by James Watkins

It comes as no surprise that when a grammy nominated artist hits one of the Midlands most intimate venues, then tickets are going to be hard to come by.

Judging by the amount of people asking around for spares outside Birmingham’s O2 Academy on Tuesday night, you would be forgiven for thinking that Jason Mraz was not just a new name wonder that has suddenly sprung on to our stereos.

In fact, Mraz has seen a wealth of success, albeit in his homeland USA for a number of years, releasing three albums to date, including the critically acclaimed and Grammy nominated “Mr. A-Z”.

In the UK however, Jason Mraz has only just received chart success with his third studio album, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things, mostly down to the single I’m Yours, which almost anybody who listens to the radio will have undoubtedly heard on countless occasions.

Now given this factor, it wasn’t surprising to see a host of fans rather confused and bewildered when Mraz played a large amount of songs from his back catalogue which until tonight, they had never known existed.

Now obviously there were plenty of fans at the gig who knew all about Jason Mraz and his stellar collection of tunes, but you could’nt help overhear people asking what songs were being played and where they came from.

This could be taken in two ways, but thankfully for most, it wasn’t taken in the same manner that saw fans show their frustration of Mraz failing to come on stage until 9.45pm by booing. Instead it was greeted with a sense of excitement that there was more tracks to fill their iPods with when they got home later that night.

Mraz was ruthless in his guitar plucking and vocal prowess, masterfully seeing his way through Make It Mine and Worldplay, before raising the roof late-on in the set with I’m Yours mixed with a blissful cover version mid-song of Bob Marley’s classic Three Little Birds, which made full use of the three-piece brass band that tunefully lifted the tempo of every tune laid down from the start.

It was obvious to everyone lucky enough to have a ticket for the show that Mraz was much more used to playing in front of thousands of people instead of hundreds as he masterfully waltzed about the stage during the hour long set.

The question remains though, is whether the hundreds in the crowd tonight can convince the thousands outside that he is worthy of a listen. I recommend you try anything once.