Concerts

Tom & I have been lucky lately in that we've been able to go to a couple of really fun, cool concerts (not to mention have a 'date night' which is always a treat).

On August 27th, we went to see Jack Johnson at UCSB.
It was at the Harder Stadium which is normally their soccer stadium. There were over 15,000 people there! (apparently, the largest show in SB in quite some time). It was a great show. He played all of the songs I love and was hoping he'd play. Plus, there was a very interesting stage set up with large LCD type screens behind him showing either him or other band members or scenes from nature - the beach, waves, clouds, trees etc. while he was performing. Very, very cool.

It was just such a neat night - sitting outside in the stands of the stadium (we opted not to stand on the field with the masses - though it turns out after talking with several people who were there - the sound was better in the stands) we had great seats and an excellent view of him and the stage. We let all of the UCSB "kids" stand on the field. =) We listened to the songs and enjoyed hearing all of his stories about how he wrote the first CD - Brushfire Fairytales - while a student at UCSB - talking about the places he lived, his dining commons (the DLG - de la guerra commons), street names in IV, etc. Very cool to be able to tie certain songs to where we live and hear how and when he wrote them...
We left right as it was ending and walked back towards our car under rows of eucalyputus trees listening to him sing the last song of the night, "If I Had Eyes." A very fun evening.

On September 12th, we went to see Jason Mraz at the Santa Barbara West Beach Music Festival. This if the first time they've done this festival - it was huge! For those of you who can picture this, the festival took over all of west beach which sits between the SB Harbor and the Wharf. It was quite the set-up. Various stages, venues, booths... We hung out and sat on the sand, waiting for him to arrive. (As an aside, most of this time I was thinking of Whitney - the ultimate J. Mraz fan. Afterall, I owe being a fan to her as she introduced me to him and his music in the first place. Ah... that fateful day when she drove down from VT to take me to a show at the Orpheum in Boston... She would've loved this night - and the venue!)

He finally came on stage sporting his trademark hat and started singing and beatboxing. His vocal styling and range is amazing. There was an entire horn section as well as other instruments not commonly seen in a 'rock band.' He was, as he said, traveling with 'his orchestra.' He played songs that we knew and some songs that I didn't recognize (I suspect off of the new album which I've yet to purchase) except he did sing the "I'm Yours" song which is a hit at the moment.
It was a great evening: sitting on the beach, listening to him sing, feeling the sand between our toes, and looking up at the palm trees that line Cabrillo Boulevard moving in the ocean breeze.

All in all - two great shows and two great nights out.
(p.s. this is where we'd like to give a shout-out to our awesome babysitter, Erin... yay Erin!) =)