The Michael Buble “Crazy Love” Concert – A Second Time!

Last Monday night, my mom, my dad, the Grim Cheaper, and I all headed to Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles to attend the final show of Michael Buble’s “Crazy Love” Tour.  And, as you can imagine, I could NOT have been more excited!  When I attended the cutie crooner’s concert back in April of this year, the experience was extremely bittersweet for me as my dad, who  – if it is at all possible – loves Michael even more than I do, was too sick to attend.  Thanks to a hook-up from fellow stalker David, we had absolutely AMAZING seats and although I enjoyed myself immensely while there, I couldn’t help but be distracted by the fact that my dad was not sitting next to me, as he would absolutely died over our proximity to the stage.  So, when I found out a couple of weeks ago that MB would be returning to Los Angeles to finish up his tour, I just about had a heart attack and informed the GC that, come hell or high water, we would ALL be attending – my mom, my dad, the GC, and I.  You see, after three years of living with pancreatitis – to the point that he was giving himself numerous daily injections of Dilaudid pain medication at home – after over 15 surgeries and one very unsuccessful trip to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and after literally almost missing my wedding due to pain, my dad is finally, FINALLY healthy again!  As it turns out, one of his cholesterol medications was causing the pancreatitis, which we only discovered thanks to an extremely astute emergency room doctor at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, whom we happened to meet by chance after my dad’s pancreatic specialist told my mom, while en route to a West L.A. hospital in the midst of one of my dad’s attacks, that there was “nothing more he could do for him” (not kidding!).  My mom immediately turned the car around and drove to Huntington, their local hospital, and the rest is history!  My dad is now on his 45th day (and counting) of (relatively) no pain!  Halleluiah!  The bad news is that, for better or worse, he will forever have pancreatitus and will, therefore, always be subject to pain, but at least now it’s a manageable pain and he can once again live a normal life.  So, to celebrate my dad’s newfound good health and his 64th birthday, which was on the 16th of December, the GC and I purchased four tickets to the MB “Crazy Love” show.  Because I love surprises, we waited until the day before the concert to tell my dad of our plans and he started bawling upon opening the box and seeing the tickets.    One of the best moments of my life, right there.

Thanks to another hook-up from fellow stalker David, I was again able to secure FABULOUS seats to the show – in fact they were the EXACT same seats that we sat in during the previous MB concert!  My dad almost died when he saw how close we were to the stage!  Thank you, David!

The arena was literally JAM-PACKED with people, so the fact that we were able to get tickets at all, let alone such great ones, was absolutely incredible!

MB’s opening act was, again, Naturally 7 , an acoustic group that specializes in what they call “vocal play” – i.e. they perform without the assistance of instruments, but instead use their voices and bodies to simulate various musical instruments and sounds.  And I have to say that they were absolutely A-MA-ZING!  If I hadn’t been there, witnessing the whole thing with my own eyes, I would have been CONVINCED that they had instruments onstage with them!

After Naturally 7 performed for about an hour, the lights went down and it was time for Mr. Buble to come out.  He opened up the show with a rousing rendition of “Cry Me A River” and, let me tell you, the crowd went absolutely wild!  But no one more so than me and my dad!  My dad’s mouth literally hung open – and I am fairly certain that he also teared up a bit – upon seeing Michael step out onto that stage and realizing how very close to him we were.

I can easily say that Monday night’s concert was JUST as fabulous as the one we saw in April, if not more so!  Before seeing the show, I was a little worried that it would simply be a carbon copy of the previous concert and that all of Michael’s jokes were, in actuality, scripted and were not as off-the-cuff as they had seemed.  But I am VERY happy to report that that was not the case AT ALL!  Even though the song list was, for the most part, identical to April’s show, it truly felt as if we were attending a completely different concert, mostly due to the fact that all of Michael’s jokes and monologues were new and spontaneous.  He truly plays off and engages the crowd and all of the hilarious stories we heard this time around were different than the ones he told at the previous show.  LOVE IT!

And, as I mentioned last time, Buble is FUNNY!  Like ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS!  His show is equal parts concert/stand-up comedy act.  At one point he introduced his pianist Alan Chang, who has been with him since 2003, by saying, “He is my friend, my pianist, my writing partner, my musical director, and . . . my part-time lover,” and then he broke out into a spontaneous rendition of Stevie Wonder’s 1985 hit “Part-Time Lover”.  LOL LOL LOL  Michael is also a fabulous impersonator and can speak in just about any accent imaginable, which he did throughout the night.  He also did a fabulous impersonation of Elin Nordegren for us, during which he danced across the stage, pretending to wear clogs, while reprimanding Tiger Woods for his lascivious ways.  Afterwards he said, “I’m sure she doesn’t really sound like that, but in my head she does.”

It is also readily apparent not only how much the guy loves being onstage, but how much he enjoys interacting with his fans.  One lady in the front row had a sign stating, “Michael, I’ve been with you for FORTY shows!”  Well, Michael took one look at that sign, said “I have GOT to give you a hug!”, immediately jumped down to the floor, and embraced the woman.  As you can imagine, I just about died over that one!  I mean, is that all it takes to get a hug from Michael Buble?  Oh GC, you know what that means!  Next year we are going to at least forty of his shows!

The most unique aspect of an MB concert, though, is that while there you feel as if you are hanging out with the singer in his living room.  Even though there are 14,000 people surrounding you, due to his easy-going and sincere nature, Michael somehow manages to make the whole thing seem intimate and personal.

And his show is FUN!  Michael is a barrel of energy and spends the entire two hours sliding across the stage, spinning around, and bouncing up and down.  His jubilance is absolutely contagious and he has somehow even managed to make a fan out of the GC, who, prior to April’s concert, could just take or leave the guy.

As was the case last time, Michael was accompanied onstage by nothing more than a microphone, a stool, and his amazing band.  There were no histrionics, no big dance numbers, no special effects.  It was just a man and his voice and, let me tell you, he ABSOLUTELY BROUGHT DOWN THE HOUSE!  He had that audience on its feet for the entire second act of the show!  Even my mom and dad were standing and dancing for the last hour!  So incredibly cool!

Also, much the same as last time, my favorite segment of the show definitely had to be the big Michael Jackson Tribute/”Twist & Shout” number.  Michael introduced the segment by saying he was going to sing a song from the movie that won the 1986 Academy Award for Best Picture – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  Then he said, “No, I’m just kidding – Ferris Bueller did not actually win the Oscar that year, but it TOTALLY should have!”  LOVE IT!  LOVE IT!  LOVE IT!

At one point during the concert, Michael actually walks through the audience over to the “B-Stage”, which is located on the other side of the venue.  While there he sang an absolutely beautiful acoustic version of his hit song “Home” accompanied only by his guitar player.  I don’t remember him singing the song in that manner during the April show and it turned out to be one of my favorite performances of the entire evening.  Sigh!

Michael ended the show with his new song “Hollywood” while accompanied by Naturally 7 and it was FABULOUS.  I absolutely LOVE that song!

He, of course, came back out after “Hollywood” to sing an encore, during which a cloud of confetti burst from the sky setting the stage for “Let It Snow”.  Because the Christmas tune is one of my dad’s very favorite Buble songs, we could NOT have been more excited to hear it.

As always, Michael finished his encore with the Leon Russell-penned “Song For You”, which he says he hopes to end every show with for the rest of his life.

All in all, it was an ABSOLUTELY amazing night and the BEST possible present we could have ever given my dad in honor of his newfound good health!  Amazingly enough, my mom actually saw the Beatles perform live in concert when she was a teenager and she said that the Michael Buble show was far more exceptional.  Talk about a compliment!

A BIG, HUGE THANK YOU to fellow stalker David from both me and my dad for hooking us up with these amazing tickets!  You rock, my friend!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Sadly, you can’t – last Monday night’s show was the last of Michael Buble’s “Crazy Love” Tour.  But you can find out information about the singer’s upcoming appearances on his official website here.  And you can follow Tory Class, MB’s Tour Marketing Manager, on Twitter at @ToryonTour here.