John Mayer
White River Ampitheater
Auburn, Washington, United States
Set List:
Why Georgia
Bigger Than My Body
Come Back To Bed
My Stupid Mouth
Wheel
No Such Thing
City Love (w/long blues jam intro)
Your Body Is A Wonderland
New Deep
Inner City Blues (Marvin Gaye cover)
Clarity
--- Encore
Comfortable (Acoustic)
3x5 (Acoustic)
Neon (Acoustic)
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Where, oh where to start? This was the best concert I have ever experienced...
I took my dad along. He likes John's stuff that he's heard. Having played the guitar for about thirty years, he can appreciate some good guitar work. So I bought two tickets months ago. I wanted the best seats possible, but got stuck way off to the right side of the venue. (Thank you, Ticketmaster. You stinky bastard.) Luckily, the seats were close enough that they were still good ones.
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*Fun Fact*
If you ever plan on sneaking two miniature bottles of alcohol into a concert (one 50ml Bicardi, the other Black Velvet), be sure to hide them down your pants inside a paper towel. I assure you, security personnel will not search there (but it may cause you to walk funny).
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First up was DJ Logic. I have never been overly familiar with the whole DJ process, but I was intrigued. Really, there was nothing too exciting about it. Not a bad idea though, as more and more people are making their way to their seats. After almost an hour, on came Switchfoot. These guys were pretty good. Not knowing anything about them, I was impressed. Catchy songs, good energy, good stuff. I plan to pick up their newest album sometime now, due to the fact that they mostly played the newer stuff.
Darkness typically means it's Go-John time. All day, my dad and I had held discussions. What will John play? In which order? This is what I'm hoping to hear. What are you hoping for? And just how many licks DOES it take to get to the tootsie-rool center of a tootsie-pop?? This much is certain... the world may never know. Eventually, John came out and started playing "Why Georgia", my dad's favorite. He played some more great songs (see the list) following that. Before the forth song, John told the audience "This is a song called 'Comfortable'". Naturally, the crowd went nuts. The 16 year-old groupies wet themselves and screamed. So with nothing more said, John starts playing "My Stupid Mouth" in its entirety. He's funny like that.
It was great to finally hear "Wheel" live... especially with a cool little jazzy intro. Before "No Such Thing", he told us something like "This is an older song. I wrote it... HOLY SHIT! About six years ago.". He ended up braking two strings during it. NST was followed by a free-style blues jam that morphed into "City Love". In that, he substituted the line "she keeps a toothbrush at my place" with "she keeps her tampons at my place". I was cracking up. I should also mention that in the last verse where he says "I found it in Lydia", he has actually been singing "I found it in America" ever since 9/11. If you listen to AGT (Any Given Thursday), he says it on that version as well.
Next was "Your Body Is A Wonderland", or for you hardcore fans out there, 'YBIAW'. The only part out of the ordinary here was just after the solo. David Ryan Harris, John's newest guitar player, took over lead vocals for a bit... singing a small medley of songs to the "Wonderland" hook. Among them was Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer", and Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing". Very cool!
"New Deep" followed. When that was over, John put down his guitar and grabbed his microphone. Then he calls DJ Logic to the stage, and the band proceeded into a cover of "Inner City Blues" by Marvin Gaye. David sang with John on this song, and the whole band got into it and ripped it up. It was classic. Next up was "Clarity", the end of which was looped so John could introduce the band and say his thank you and goodnight piece.
Then came the encore. This was like something out of a dream. One of those dreams where maybe you had been drinking earlier that night, and you're not that sure if you're really there or just imagining it, it's so surreal. When the lights come back up, all we see by his microphone is an acoustic guitar and a chair. John comes back out, sits down and picks up the Martin. He then playes a few random rhythmic notes here and there to tease us. That guitar sounded so perfect. And then he starts in with "Comfortable". Everyone went nuts. But soon after, we were all perfectly quiet, and all that could be heard was John and his guitar. He nailed it down perfectly, even with a few improvisions. Instead of "but you could distinguish Miles from Coltrane", he opted for "but you could distinguish Mayer from Matthews"... a subtle response to all those people who think he's just another Dave wannabe. Later in the song, following the usual "I loved you", he sang "grey sweatpants... no makeup... and I don't know.... she still looks really damn good! Ummm, nevermind... I guess my point is that I want you baaaaaaaack." It may not be word for word, but pretty close. Nice little improv moment anyway.
Next in the acoustic encore was one of my favorites of John's, "3x5". It was amazing to see John playing this solo, as I have rarely heard it, much less at a live show. After 3x5, John invited Harris back out to play with him acoustically. David started singing one of his own songs (I'll get back to you on the title), then joined John in a brief tease of "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega, which ultimately worked right into "Neon" to end the night. Amazing show, amazing night!
On the way home, my dad said to me, "I didn't realize he was such a great guitarist. I'm a fan". I couldn't help but smile.
FINAL THOUGHT:
"Is there a god?
why is he waiting?
don't you think of it odd,
when he knows my address?
Look at the stars
don't they remind you
just how feeble we are?
Well, they used to I guess"
"New Deep" by John Mayer
