pickin' up trash in dresses

(Disclaimer: my poor treo just doesn't produce good pictures. Forgive them.)

Bless his little heart, the poor Californian kook has just gotten a little too "earthy" for me to love the way I once thought I could. But in conjunction with his mad vocal ability, the guy is hysterical, and I always always love his shows. It helps that - again, bless his heart - he's just not big enough to play at the superobnoxious venues, and the smaller ones just suit me better. The fact that I'm pretty sure I have some sort of head-infection-flu-like-congestion going on, especially appreciated the chilled-out venue.

He opened with Make It Mine; it's one of the few personally enjoyable tunes on the new album, and followed by the "ambitious love song", Clockwatching, it was a peppy way to start out.
His bare feet are always sweetly endearing and they reminded me (and simultaneously gave me a sliver of hope for Mr.)of a passionate fella I once knew who took very seriously where he stood. Next was Common Pleasure and If It Kills Me, which I think the latter is one he wrote while quite possibly hangin out in my little world.
While intro-ing Bella Luna he welcomed the "upstairs people" and invited them to put up their "technological devices" to create a starry night sky. It was very cute and perfectly Jason-witty to ad lib "refresh your screens" into the song. That kid can sing anything at anytime and make it OK. While it's not one of my favorite songs, I typically can't skip it because of the crazy vocals. I could've done without Love For a Child, mostly because I just don't know what to do with a song like that - are you supposed to clap when it's over? He made a pretty good little speech about how he appreciated the opportunity to "practice my gratitude on you"... I'm not sure what that means, but I think I like that. I did adore The Remedy, especially with Wonderwall thrown in as the bridge. And even more so since I heard Ryan Adams perform the same just a week ago in the same place.

I could have done without Live High and the shout out to Obama. Blah. I hope Jason's getting a cut of campaign funds. I felt just as uninterested with Only Human. Mostly because morally, I just can't agree with that song. And it's a smoking gun, solidifying the proof that he's too much of a kook for me to love, so I don't like it. I'm Yours was pretty spectacular, obviously, and the music video playing on the screens behind was a nice touch.
I've never seen him encore except last night - and it was a lot less of an encore and a lot more of a second show. He opened bringing Lisa Hannigan back out to duo Lucky which is reason enough to buy the album. I will dance to that song one day. There was a delightfully chipper cover of The Foundations Build Me Up Buttercup that was accompanied by the mrazunique sway. Butterfly is exactly what I expect from the older, kook-y Jason, and I have mixed emotions about it. Again - the vocals - pheww.
He departed charging everyone to "don't worry about any little thing" and "show off kindness" crooning A Beautiful Mess. I adore that song. The mellow'd out, purely acoustic was a fantastic way to end. And I am pretty sure some poor chap someday will sing that song about me, bless his heart.