Bruno Mars, as a part of his 24K Magic World Tour 2017 came to the American Airlines center in downtown Dallas on Friday, October 27, 2017. Until this, I had never gone to any concert, which allowed me to go with no expectations.

Because I’m not a huge Mars fan, I didn’t know many of the songs that he sang. I was able to recognize a few of my personal favorites, like “When I Was Your Man” and “Just the Way You Are.”

Despite my lack of knowledge with him, I really enjoyed the concert. Mars is great at performing and knows how to cater to a large-sized crowd. The American Airlines center set up seats on the left, right, center and the floor of the arena. It would be far too easy to exclude an area with this set-up or not engage a side as much. Mars did not. He took turns going over to both sides of the stage and at one point set up a competition between the two sides to see which one could be the loudest. I was personally on stage right, the left side for me, and not on the floor. Throughout the entire concert I felt really engaged.

The main thing that kept me engage was Mars and his band, the Hooligans. Not only did they sing, but they danced in sync with one another. This looked especially cool when they were moving across the stage in a hopping motion without missing a beat.

Mars didn’t just stop with dancing, he also had a lot of moving parts in his songs. Fireworks would go off at big moments, there were light beams that went over the crowd and at times the stage would have platforms that lifted up. This gave a way to visually engage even more because all these things were easily seen from any part of the center. Even if someone was in the back, they would see and hear the fireworks.

My only complaint was the sound quality. The American Airlines center had large speakers all over the place, but they had a bit of trouble picking up on the lower notes when it Mars and the Hooligans. This made it hard to hear some of the words in different songs. The speakers were also no match for the crowd’s screams.

For a first concert, I found this to be an amazing experience. Mars really knows how to work with large audience and it showed throughout the entire time. I really, really enjoyed it.