Christy and I went to a fabulous show last night to celebrate her birthday!! (It was a late night, so I'm seeing if I can beat her to the posting this morning!! Ready, Set, Go!)

We went to see Jason Mraz at the Rococo Theater here in town. It was a bit sentimental. . .you see the Rococo theater is the old "Stuart Theater". In it's day, it was THE place in downtown. It opened in the 20's and had the best shows there. It has regular orchestral seating, a balcony, and then a large 2nd balcony. Later on, it became a regular movie theater. The acoustics are fabulous so everyone wanted to see the big shows there. I saw ET there, and remember seeing several others as a kid. When all the Star Wars films were re-released (with all their audio splendor), we knew we had to see them at the Stuart. I can remember waiting for tickets for the midnight shows. We also saw the first Mission Impossible there (dun, dun, DUN, DUN, dun, dun, DUN, DUN, dododo, dododo, dododo, dodo). It eventually kind of fell apart, with the wrong people in charge, but a new group stepped in and completely restored it. It now has 'vegas-style' booths on the main floor and regular seating in the balconies. It's awesome. Here's some pictures I took from their website.

Here's the view from the balcony, and check out this chandelier!!Oh wait, SO the show!!

Opening for Jason Mraz was a guy named Raul Midon. Can I just say

AMAZING!!

I was a little worried for Mraz, he had a big act to follow. . .but he did just fine.

Raul is a fabulous musician, and literally a one-man-band. He just came out plugged in his guitar and went. But throughout, you could hear and feel the beats of percussion, bass guitar, and he even does an amazing jazz trumpet with his mouth. (you seriously were looking around for the trumpeter!)

So I checked out his website and have already bought his first album off itunes. Seriously, click the link above and go to the site, and watch the live song (I swear while he was playing I just kept waiting for his hand to fall off it was moving so fast.) His second, from which he played some sweet tunes last night, comes out later this year. His sound is really soulful, jazzy, and has a lot of Latin influence. It's just that great driving, cleaning, dancing, singingalongto music. It's also fabulously positive!! And I don't know if this will be totally PC (oh, well!) but he's blind and I absolutely believe (at least with him) the idea that blind people make up for that 'loss' by totally rockin' in some other area!! Ok, so, if you didn't notice, that was a total 'shout-out' for Raul Midon!!

So, onto Mr. Mraz. He was great. (and funny!) 3/4 music, 1/4 comedy! That is totally my kind of 'chill-out' music. I'll let Christy shout-out for Mraz, and tell the funny jokes too! So go check her out!