We attended the Bruno Mars concert last Wednesday at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, FL. The weather was nice and we didn't have any traffic problems, but parking was a surprise. All the lots near the venue cost $20 to park, so we were fortunate to have plenty of quarters in the car to plug into the meters which are enforced from 8am to midnight. It cost $0.75 per hour so a few hours of parking was less than $4. I would recommend bringing quarters to any event at the Forum, since the pay to park machines did not work. Anyway, we walked a couple blocks to get into the Forum and then found our seats.
The warm up band was Fitz and the Tantrums and they were pretty good. The sound was lively, solid and entertaining. Our seats were back a little on the side in section 114, so we were able to enjoy viewing closeups on the big screens hung high above the crowds' heads. They played a solid set of 17 songs for over an hour. And then the wait began. Bruno Mars kept us waiting an hour between the end of the warm up band and he came on 15 minutes late. He played 18 songs for 70 minutes then came out and did a drum solo and two more songs, so I think we could say 90 minutes. I felt cheated. He has so much more material and for $88 tickets I expected a little more. On a scale of 1-10, I would rate this performance a 7.
Set List
Moonshine
Natalie
Treasure
Money (That's What I Want)(Barrett Strong cover)
Billionaire(Travie McCoy cover)
Show Me
Our First TIme
Pony (Ginuwine cover)
Marry You
If I Knew
Runaway Baby
Nothin' On You(B.O.B. cover)
When I Was Your Man
Grenade
Just The Way You Are
Encore:
Drum Solo
Locked Out of Heaven
Gorilla
