Jason Mraz played through a slow moving but energetic 14 song set in front of 5,000 at NIU’s Convocation Center Tuesday night. Mraz last performed at NIU in the fall of 2003, but in the Duke Ellington Ballroom.

He took the stage just after 8:30 p.m. to a loud ovation from a crowd of mainly NIU and local high school students. He struggled to fully gain the audience’s attention, though, until he ripped into his first radio single “The Remedy (I Won’t Worry).”

To the crowd’s delight, he ended the tune with some lines from Oasis’ hit “Wonderwall.”

One of the highlights of the night came during “Unfold,” a song originally released on an acoustic album recorded live in 2001. He dedicated the song to two of his friends who were in attendance that night.

After a short guitar solo from Mraz, saxophone player Carlos Sosa brought the house down with a solo that drew a loud reaction from the crowd.

As the crowd was reeling from the end of “Unfold,” Kristen May, lead singer from the opening act Vedera, made her way on stage to sing a duet of Mraz’ newest single, “Lucky.”

The album version of the song, which appears Mraz’ new CD “We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.,” features Colbie Caillat on vocals. After I first heard the album version of the tune, I was not impressed.

But last night May sang her parts of the song beautifully which left good vibes in the Convo after an otherwise slower song.

Despite the slow progression of certain songs, Mraz kept things interesting with his banter between songs.

“Y’all put the ‘al’ in DeKalb,” Mraz said at one point, mispronouncing the city, hopefully on purpose.

The ladies in the crowd showed their appreciation throughout the night for Mraz’ dance moves on stage. With hips swinging almost nonstop all night, Mraz closed the set with arguably his biggest hit to date “I’m Yours.”

After finishing the normal rendition of the tune, Mraz and his band played a bit more of the beat before heading backstage for a brief encore break.

The crowd clapped and cheered the entire time before he came back on stage to perform “Warming Up,” a rare song not played often. Mraz saw a sign in the front row, which featured the request for the song.

After performing songs from his other two EP’s “Mr. A-Z” and “Waiting For My Rocket To Come,” he closed the set with a nearly 10 minute version of “Butterfly” before leaving the stage just after 10 p.m.

Although the set was methodically moving at times, it featured songs from all of his albums as well as an unreleased tune. Fans of his latest work probably enjoyed the show the most with eight of the 14 songs coming from the 2008 album.

Vedera opened the show with a short set of songs from their new album “Stages” released last year. The indie/art rock band from Kansas City, Mo. eased the crowd into their sound before giving way to Mraz.

In a unique move, the band was giving away four song sampler discs in the lobby after the show.