My Experience: Bruno Mars Moonshine Jungle Tour!!!

Hello everybody!!!

I know it has been ages since I have posted, but I have been hard at work making this post as lengthy and full of media as I can! 

I hope you enjoy reading about my experience at the Bruno Mars Moonshine Jungle Tour as well as  my overall review of it for this Music Monday :)

Enjoy!

First, let me preview you on the musical genius that is BRUNO MARS (for those of you living under a rock). Peter Gene Hernandez was born in Honolulu in 1985 and took to music right away. 

As a child, he was exposed to a variety of different genres of music including R&B, hip-hop, rock, and reggae. And, after he moved to LA when he was 17, we saw Bruno only build on the diversity that added to his pizzazz.

Now, we know Bruno for his hits "Just the Way You Are," "Grenade," "Lighters," "It Will Rain," "Billionaire," "Nothin' on You," "Locked out of Heaven," and "Treasure" just to name a few.

And, not only has Mars created mega hits for himself, he has also helped other artists (such as Mike Posner) produce music. 

Now, into my outfit and makeup picks: I decided to keep it quite laid back and simple for this show. After the Taylor Swift concert, I knew that I would be standing the duration of the show so decided to be as comfortable as possible. And I didn't go too crazy with makeup, just a shimmery nude eye with bronzed cheeks. I also used a wand to curl my hair and lightly brushed out the curls to give it more of a beachy wave.

Follow me on instagram: @mmendoza27 :)

Then, off we were! I went with my brother and we are both HUGE fans so we were extremely excited (esp. with it being his first time to see a concert, and that of such a huge musical sensation).

The concert was held at Verizon Center in DC (same as Taylor Swift) and I was rather pleased with out seats. We were on a higher level but we still had quite a good view to everything happening on stage. There were also 2 HUGE jumbotrons that were projecting a closer view of the stage on each side. 

I will say that I was quite surprised how small the stage was, especially compared to T-Swift and JB. If I'm not mistaken, I do believe they added a little bit for Bruno, but definitely not much more than is pictured above. Maybe towards the end which gave the band more room to move around.

Now onto the review. I was slightly disappointed when I saw that Ellie Goudling would be opening for some shows, however, not this one. We unfortunately had to listen to Fitz & the Tantrums for a solid hour before we were graced with Bruno's fine presence. 

I just......I just don't know why he picked THIS band out of all the talented musicians in the world. They were no where NEAR his level of talent. I checked out the band the night before the concert, and listened to maybe 2 songs, and thought, eeh ok we'll see how it goes. But, it was just horrendous. 

To begin, the drums were WAY WAY WAYYYYY to loud. I was getting a headache just from the horrendous screaming going into my ears and the loud drums banging nearly every second. And thank the Lord they adjusted this (I actually saw and heard the crew make adjustments to fix this after the openers) for Bruno's turn on stage. Not to mention the woman was LITERALLY JABBING a tambourine into her hip for the entirety of their time on stage. I mean...she kept saying "here we go DC" trying to pump everyone up, but I kid you not..everyone except maybe a few in the front row who felt bad were standing....

I mean...cool backdrop though :/

I don't feel that it is right to go on and on about how much I disliked the opener, for it is over with and I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I really think that my experience could have been lightyears better had the opener been some new music that I really enjoyed and wanted to look up when I got home. However, that was not the case. But the good news was, after thinking, "This better be the last one..." over and over, it finally was time for Bruno to hit the stage and I was overjoyed when I heard the first song in his set... :))))))

MOONSHINE

The fact that his voice was so raw and accurate to what we all hear on the radio made me really happy. It's good to know that there are still true musicians out there who take pride in the work they create and the trade that they practice! 

I commented on an earlier post about how amazing BM was on the Billboard awards, singing Treasure for the first time, and it was even better on his first stop of his tour! His band is so energetic and just makes you want to stand throughout the show (which is what I did :D).

Again, I just don't think words do him justice. If there was one song I was going to film entirely, I told myself it would be When I Was Your Man. A favorite of mine to sing, and it was such an amazing moment to see him perform live :')

I was also genuinely surprised how much he interacted with the audience. He was fun....I was definitely all ears...and eyes ;) But really, he talked to us, made us laugh, maybe even cry. It was beautiful really, and refreshing. I think that most artists now get on stage, and hop off when they're done. He didn't; he cared about us and I greatly appreciate that..

SO much led up to this moment. He went off stage for around 5 minutes to change outfits while the lights in the venue were shut off. I knew there was NO WAY he wouldn't sing this song so I started chanting "BRUNO," and I SWEAR I got half the venue to chant with me...then it died down a bit and he came on stage pounding the drums to begin Locked Out Of Heaven. He finished with Gorilla...which, to be honest, could have gone somewhere in the middle, but I do think that it tied the whole tour together---being jungle themed and all (Moonshine-first, Gorilla, last = Moonshine Jungle Tour ;)).

Overall, the concert was Ah-MAZING. I really, truly enjoyed everything after the opener. It was full of energy and hype, and most of all talent. I HIGLY suggest you try to see him live. Well worth it!!! You can see how excited performing makes him, and that really makes all the difference in the world. He even said, "Thank you guys for proving to me that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life." :')) And I can only hope that he does just that! :)

Thanks for a night to remember BM,

xx Monica