Posner plays for sold out crowd

If a good time can be measured by the number of empty cups lying on the sticky floor, then the 800 Mike Posner fans definitely had a good time.

Producer, singer and songwriter Posner played in his first Bloomington concert Friday at Jake’s Nightclub.

Fans began to arrive at 9 p.m. when the doors were set to open. Even in 12-degree weather, the line of people waiting to enter Jake’s stretched back to Papa John’s, the bar’s next-door neighbor.

Jake’s and BFA Entertainment, a local company, sold all 800 tickets.

“I had several promotional groups coming to me starting at the beginning of the school year asking me to book Mike Posner, so that’s what alerted me to his popularity,” said Erik Duvall, Jake’s general manager. “That’s when BFA Entertainment came to me.”
Owner and director of BFA Entertainment, Kelsi Velpel, was the driving force behind booking Posner.

“I heard about Mike this summer in New York, and when I came back to IU, I heard people saying his name. I went to his show in Miami of Ohio,” Velpel said. “He was selling out shows and we decided to bring him here.”

Opening for Posner was hip-hop artist Joby Wright and bands Sinclair and Addison Park.

But everyone was buzzing about Posner’s appearance.

“It’s just really different,” senior Stacey Smith said about Posner’s music. “He’ll cover cool people but he puts his own spin on it.” 

Smith said she was most excited to hear his hits “Cooler than Me” and “Drug Dealer Girl.”

Both songs were played, along with “Red Button,” an original; “I Don’t Trust Myself,” a remixed version of the John Mayer song by the same title; “Evil Woman,” a play on the Electric Light Orchestra song; and several others.

The crowd sang along with Posner’s most well-known song, “Drug Dealer Girl,” and went crazy when he threw his shirt to the crowd after finishing.

Posner said he was just as crazy about being in Bloomington as his fans.

“It was one of my favorite shows to date,” Posner said.

The crowd’s energy, obvious by the swarms of people against the stage, was
what Posner said he enjoyed most.

“Everyone was having the time of their lives,” he said.