General Admission

By Kristy Schiller

General Admission. I have always hated it.  Spending $30.00 for a ticket and still having to stand in line should be illegal and yet I did it, along with hundreds of others. And in the end – no complaints from me.

The begging and pleading started immediately when the email came through announcing that Jason Mraz (www.jasonmraz.com) was coming to the Royal Oak Theatre.   My boyfriend finally relented and we agreed to take the teenagers.

I have been a fan of Jason Mraz since I heard “Remedy” where the refrain is my ring tone along with my own quote on life, “I won’t worry my life away.”  The teens found it amusing that I was such a fan since I am so old (35) and Jason is, well he is 28 and actually closer to my age then their own, but for some odd reason they feel the need to egg me about my age.  My boyfriend had no intentions on attending, but felt uncomfortable sending three young ladies out to a concert where it was general admission and so he plunked down his own $30.00 for a ticket. 

Before leaving work, I changed from my conventional business suit and turned into the rocker that I really am more comfortable with.  Decked out in a Chicago Hard Rock t-shirt, ripped jeans and long white and silver earrings we ventured the 19 miles to stand in line for three hours on the cold and windy Michigan evening.  The crowd was mostly young, making both me and my 45 year old boyfriend feel ancient, but we didn’t care, it was all about the music.  Band members came out of the back of the building to have a smoke and wave to the crowd.  Security came around to check identification, place bracelets on wrists according to age and flirt with the young girls.  Finally after many hours of standing and shifting the weight back and forth from leg to leg, the doors were opened and the crowd ran for the stage.  Our girls were front row, but my boyfriend and I decided that we were too old and worn out to stand for another 3 hours, so we headed to the balcony where we sat in front row seats.

It is rare that I like an opening band and being tired from a long day of working, I laid my head on my boyfriend’s shoulder anticipating a nap before Jason came on.  I was pleasantly surprised when Big City Rock began playing.  Their songs were catchy, the band mates were entertaining and the music was good.  Jason even jumped on stage in the middle of a song and began singing, surprising the lead singer as he stood there stunned before catching his breathe and grabbing a guitar.  Girls swooned.  Guy hollered.  Jason ran off soon after.

Mraz calls his hometown Virginia where he didn’t begin playing the guitar until he was 18 years old.  After high school he moved to New York to attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, but wasn’t happy and moved home soon after.  Knowing that there was more out there, he took off to San Francisco where he began playing coffee houses and that is where he met Toca, a talented and funky percussionist.    

It is difficult to classify Mraz’s music style.  Mix pop, rock, jazz, folksy country and rap and you get Jason’s own style of pure music.  Some of his lyrics are just plain silly, but most have deep thoughts within them showing that he is an excellent poet who just doesn’t think about getting laid, but about life.  Real life.

It takes no time to fall in love

But it takes you years to know what love is

It takes some fears to make you trust

It takes those tears to make it rust

It takes some dust to make it polished

This man can rap the best up and down AND you can understand every word that he utters.  I was astounded.  I sat with my mouth wide open wondering how anybody could think and speak that quickly. Surely this was an intelligent being.

Before one song, Jason gave a lecture on how the workers of the world weren’t given enough credit.  That sports figures and musicians had fans that held up banners announcing how wonderful they were, but where were the fans for the doctors, teachers, mothers, Starbuck employees, etc.?  They too should be told that “they rock!” and have signs held up for them.  It was a motivating speech, with quirkiness that I thought got the point across without being preachy.  I cheered loudly.

The show ended too soon for my liking, but all good things must come to an end.  The opening band was loitering in the lobby and never being shy, I walked up to them, gave them a hug and a congrats for a job well done, much to the humiliation of the teens who looked back apprehensively. Since our car was parked next to the tour bus, we thought we might stick around to see if Mraz would come through to chat with fans.  An hour later, the bus started up and off it went, Mraz waving in the back window.  Somehow we all missed him. 

My boyfriend is a newfound Mraz fan, thoroughly appreciating the talents of a musical genius who just loves to play his guitar; much like John Mayer.  It is about the music and about making the fans happy.  Anything in between is just the maraschino cherry on top of the sundae.

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