Whether you were there for the show or you were one of the unlucky ones who missed out on a ticket, the fact that Jesse McCartney was coming to Cal was all anyone could talk about for months. I will admit that when SAB (the Student Activity Board) announced that Jesse McCartney was going to perform I was puzzled yet intrigued. I had no idea that the man behind “Beautiful Soul” was still making music or touring after years of silence.
Much to my surprise, when I arrived at the venue an hour before the doors opened, there were two lines. According to a girl I met in line, the lines began forming around 2pm (the doors to the venue opened at 6). The show started with a band called Hear Tonight which is one that is pretty well known by any Cal U student.
The boys did a great job warming the crowd up for Jesse and it was definitely cool to see my peers opening for such a big act. When it was time for Jesse to come out you could feel the anticipation in the air. I had not expected to feel so much excitement but as soon as he was on the stage it was as if the entire crowd was transported back to 2006.
We were all living out our childhood dreams of going to a concert that we missed out one at the time. The setlist was a great mix between old favorites and his new album,In Technicolor. That’s right, you can fall in love with Jesse McCartney all over again!
I was impressed with how much he interacted with the crowd asking people what their names were and even bringing one lucky girl on stage to serenade her. There was an incident where two girls ran up on stage without being prompted and he handled it with a joke and promised them a photograph after the show. Overall he was definitely a crowd pleaser.
In case you were wondering, yes, he does still sound fantastic live. Plus he is still just as cute, If not cuter, than he was when we were all collecting his posters. I honestly lost hearing in my ear shortly after he finished singing “Beautiful Soul” because the crowd was so into it.
I was very impressed with the concert as a whole and the way that the school handled keeping Jesse away from over-enthusiastic fans was definitely impressive. Overall, the concert was a huge success. Although I was skeptical at first, I even found myself downloading quite a few of his songs when I got home. I recommend keeping your eye out for his new album because the songs that he played at the concert had a very cool feel to them.
Jesse McCartney put on a great performance and it was a great choice on the school’s part!