Sunday night Javier Colon, Connecticut native and winner of season 1 of The Voice had a concert at the Wolf’s Den at Mohegan Sun. We got there a little after 6 after getting stuck in a crazy rain storm and walked right up to get seats (after I was carded, of course, since it is a 21+ venue because it is inside the casino). I was a bit worried that he wouldn’t get a good turn out, but even though there was not a massive line like I have seen for some other acts, the seats did fill in and there were people around the outer perimeter by the time the show started at 7.
He started on stage by himself singing Bonnie Raitt’s Can’t Make You Love Me. Then his band joined him. As always he did a mix of covers and songs off of his album. He did quite a few songs that I had never heard him do before from his older albums which was a nice treat. It seemed like a lot of people in the audience had known him for years and were there to support him. (If you know him apparently you refer to him as “Javs”)
I went with my mom this time, it was the first time she saw him so when he started talking about Ok Here’s the Truth I warned her it was sad. She asked “Will I cry?” and I said yes. After the show she told me that she thought the wife was cheating and that would be bad enough and that she did have a tear in her eye. It is crazy that no matter how many times I hear that song, it gets me EVERY time. You’d think by now knowing what’s coming it wouldn’t affect me anymore, but it does.
He only played a bit of Taylor Swift’s Mean – he said they toured the Taylor Guitar factory (i think? something to do with Taylor guitars) and he saw her poster on the wall and had the song stuck in his head ever since so he played a little bit of it and then after the final song he played some more of it again.
He also never left the stage for the encore, just told us to pretend he did and cheer and then it wouldn’t waste time and he could squeeze in another song for us. He also mentioned hoping that it would be the first of many shows in that room and I hope so too because I love the Wolf’s Den (especially since the shows are free!) and obviously would love to see Javier and his band over and over again!
Can’t Make You Love Me (Bonnie Raitt)
Happy Sinner
Come Through For You
In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel)
As Long As We’ve Got Love
Raise Your Hand
Stand Up Man Up
Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper)
Ok Here’s the Truth
Your Smiling Face (James Taylor)
Drop in the Ocean
Back Home
October Sky
Man in the Mirror (Michael Jackson)
Meant to Be
Stitch By Stitch
Mean (Taylor Swift)
Fix You (Coldplay)