Jason Mraz acts out the theme song to “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” during a performance at the Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside on Tuesday, March 25, 2014. The show was part of an intimate acoustic tour with the singer-songwriter. (Vanessa Franko/Staff)
When the Fox Performing Arts Center originally opened in 1929, one of its uses was as a vaudeville theater. On Tuesday night, Jason Mraz tapped that spirit of vaudeville with an intimate show 85 years later.
Mraz, the singer-songwriter who honed his chops playing on the San Diego coffeehouse circuit, has billed his latest tour as a “rare acoustic evening.” While his radio-friendly pop-rock sound was at the night’s core, Mraz’s jokes, stories and original songs are what made the show one of a kind, not to mention the avocado juggling.
The tour included fewer than a dozen dates and Riverside snagged two of them. The second show happens at the Fox on Thursday night.
Before taking the stage to perform on Tuesday, Mraz came out and joked with the crowd while asking the audience to refrain from recording the whole show or being glued to an electronic device for the entire concert. However, he admitted his father enjoys looking up his videos on YouTube and gets concerned about his son’s popularity when people follow the directions and don’t post the entire show online.
Mraz went on to introduce Raining Jane, a female quartet of talented multi-instrumentalists that pulled double duty as opening act and backing band for Mraz.
After a few songs from the group, they left the stage and Mraz walked out, dressed in a cardigan, T-shirt, jeans and fedora, and sat down on the edge of the stage with his acoustic guitar and proceeded to play the first song he ever knew. It was “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” the theme song from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” and Mraz even pulled off his shoe like the late Fred Rogers did mid-song.
RELATED: See photos from Jason Mraz’s performance at the Fox Performing Arts Center
The heartfelt, yet slightly silly number set the tone for the rest of the night, which alternated between Mraz’s serious songs and charming, funny nature and pop culture references.
While still sitting on the edge of the stage, he performed “The Rainbow Connection,” as made famous by The Muppets, as well as his own hit “You and I Both.”
After his four solo songs, the ladies of Raining Jane appeared and led the night in an even more interesting direction with their powerful harmonies blending nicely with Mraz’s sweet tenor. The backbeat of percussionist Mona Tavakoli, who used a deconstructed drum set with mallets and brushes, a cajon and more, was only part of her interplay with Mraz. She was a vocal vaudevillian with him, chiming in throughout the evening on everything from lip gloss to soup jokes.
Jason Mraz talks to the audience before the first of two stops at the Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside on Tuesday, March 25, 2014. The show was part of an intimate acoustic tour with the singer-songwriter. He will perform again on Thursday, March 27. (Vanessa Franko/Staff)
Mraz met Raining Jane when they were both on a bill at the University of Redlands in 2006. They have been working together on an upcoming album called “Yes,” which blends their eclectic folk with his pop sensibilities.
While the marriage of sounds was particularly well done on Mraz’s hits such as “Lucky” and “I’m Yours,” it was the improvised parts of the evening that made it such a special performance.
Mraz always maintained charm and smiles and never became condescending to the audience. He took it in stride and riffed when a man in one of the front rows named Rob headed for the lobby while his fiancee remained in her seat.
“We never know what our ladies are going to drag us to,” he said before dedicating “The Woman I Love” to Rob and all of the significant others brought to the show even though Rob was already in the lobby by then.
For the new song “Long Drive,” Mraz pulled a woman named Stephanie up from the crowd to sit on the edge of the stage next to him and pretend they were driving to Lake Tahoe as he serenaded her.
However, the funniest moment of the evening was a “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” style jam where Mraz asked people in the audience what the song should be about. The audience’s suggestions included love, a beach in Maui, how adorable Mraz was and a special Riverside establishment. A Riverside resident suggested downtown restaurant and interactive art spot Tio’s Tacos as the subject of the song.
It wasn’t quite as big of an endorsement as when Eddie Money praised Riverside and reminisced about filming a video at the Mission Inn on the Fox stage a few years back, but Tio’s Tacos made it into Mraz’s Fox set. The jam also included a reference to the song “Informer” by ’90s one-hit Canadian rap wonder Snow.
After playing more songs, including “It’s Gonna Be a Good Day,” “3 Things,” and “Details in the Fabric,” Mraz led into “Frank D. Fixer” with a plug for soil health and growing your own food.
He also encouraged his fans to compost and gave away some of his own compost in a paper Trader Joe’s grocery bag to another lucky fan. He also tossed out a couple of avocados that he grew on his San Diego County property. By the end of the set, he was juggling them.
After an encore that included a cover of Boyz II Men’s “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” and his big hit “I won’t Give Up,” Mraz threw some more avocados into the audience, except for the one that missed the balcony audience and hit the actual balcony.
He can practice his aim with another sold-out show Thursday night at the Fox.
Head over to PE.com to see photos from the show.
Here’s what I have for the set list. I am definitely missing the second one from when I was taking photos. If you know any of the missing ones, let me know in the comments below and I’ll update it.
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
“Good Old Daze” (Thank you to @MrazTeam on Twitter for the assist)
“You and I Both”
“The Rainbow Connection”
“A Beautiful Mess”
“You Can Rely On Me” (H/T to reader Julie for the assist on this one)
“The Woman I Love”
“Long Drive”
“Browntown”
“93 Million Miles”
“Only Human”
“Yes”–Improvised song with Tio’s Tacos mention
“Hello, You Beautiful Thing”
“Coyotes”
“Lucky”
“Details in the Fabric”
“3 Things”
“Frank D. Fixer”
“I’m Yours”
Encore
“It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday”
“I Won’t Give Up”