This probably wasn't the first time Bruno Mars performed his song “Billionaire” in front of an actual billionaire.
But when the pop-soul singer sang about wanting to “buy all the things I never had” shortly after his Thursday night concert at the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, we couldn’t help but notice Steve Ballmer, who had used his vast wealth to do just that by building a long-awaited home for his beloved Clippers basketball team.
Sitting a few rows back from the stage in his signature light blue button-down shirt, Ballmer clapped along to Mars' upbeat tune and happily received a round of backslapping from friends seated around him.
Thursday’s sold-out show, the first of two at Mars Stadium, served as the grand opening of the Intuit Dome, a state-of-the-art arena that cost more than $2 billion and will begin hosting the Clippers in October (after years in which the team shared downtown’s Crypto.com Arena with the Lakers).
“Guys, we are part of California history right now,” Mars told an audience that included Jennifer Lopez, Angela Bassett, Courtney B. Vance, Ashton Kutcher and Simu Liu, among other celebrities.
As for the opening, it was not without its hiccups: The venue, which had been touted in advance for its high-tech touches, had a facial-recognition and smartphone-entry system that didn’t work as planned on Thursday, causing a massive bottleneck at the main entrance as building staff struggled to inspect fans’ digital tickets one by one. The show, which was scheduled for 8 p.m., ended up starting at 9:40 p.m.; concertgoers on social media complained about long lines and a lack of clear signage and reliable Wi-Fi — hardly a tragedy, but embarrassing enough for a tech baron like Ballmer, who made much of his estimated $120 billion fortune as the head of Microsoft.
But if there's one artist capable of smoothing out wrinkles, it's Bruno Mars.
In his first performance in the Los Angeles area since 2018, the 38-year-old singer gave a two-hour display of the natural charisma and deep musical knowledge that have earned him eight No. 1 singles, 15 Grammy Awards and performances at not one but two Super Bowl halftime shows. He wore a silk red bowling shirt and a neatly trimmed mustache with strong ’70s playboy vibes; he fronted the eight-piece band he calls the Hooligans as a classy mashup of James Brown, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. (Watching “Mars,” you’re never far from remembering that he got his start in show business as a miniature Elvis impersonator in his native Hawaii.)
Mars’ music is a catalogue of enduring styles — rock, pop, R&B, funk, reggae — and he offered a bit of each on songs like the sweaty “Calling All My Lovelies,” which included an extended comedy bit in which he pretended to call a lover with a gold-plated telephone; the effervescent “Treasure,” which evoked the glory days of Earth, Wind & Fire; and the swaggering “That’s What I Like,” on which he threw in a little salsa music just to prove he could do it.
Near the end of the show, he brought out Lady Gaga, whom he called “pop royalty,” to debut their new duet, “Die With a Smile,” with Mars wearing a cowboy hat while playing a guitar and Gaga wearing a giant beehive wig while playing an electric piano.
For Mars, who has spent much of the past two years performing in Las Vegas both solo and with his soul duo Silk Sonic, formed alongside Anderson .Paak, Thursday’s show was proof that as quickly as pop music is evolving these days, Mars’ old-school chops are still valuable. When a fan on the dance floor needed medical help at one point, Mars had his band act like a vampire for a few minutes while security guards found the guy and carried him out.
“This is what the professionals do,” he said with a smile as he led the players back to the show.
What about Intuit? There are plenty of other venues of this size in Los Angeles, including Crypto, the Hollywood Bowl and the Kia Forum, which is also owned by Ballmer and is just a mile down Prairie Avenue from the new building. On Thursday, though, the room sounded great: crisp and detailed, with less of the rumble you typically hear in a stadium.
Mars nodded toward Intuit's location as he introduced one of his early hits, “Nothin' on You,” which he said contained “the four chords that changed my life.”
“I lived not too far from here and I was driving my Honda Accord,” he said, a little hazy at the memory. “I’ll never forget that day. I was driving around here and heard a song on the radio.”
