It is not often that I am really inspired by anyone with a guitar in their hands (especially if there is also a keyboard on the stage) but if ever there was a moment when I wished I had really taken guitar up seriously it would definitely be the John Mayer gig last night; that man makes the guitar sing from the soul, oh and he sings pretty well himself.I had always viewed John Mayer through the eyes of his ever present female (and not surprisingly, male) entourage, who coincidentally were all around us only meters from the stage swooning and holding up ridiculous signs like, “You bought golf clubs from my Dad” or “I’m from Fairfield too!” Then again, seeing a fan from his home town, of only what? 60,000 people, could have been something reassuring…that is of course unless they simply followed him wherever he went…some Americans are way too obsessive to be allowed as much power and money as they have. I digress.
Regardless of how I had viewed John Mayer in the past, his musicianship and skill on his instrument had me somewhat transfixed, and I guess the fact that they keyboardist had nothing interesting to draw my eye forced me to find something else to look at, speaking of which, I am definitely beginning to prefer long hair to short. He effectively had a different guitar for each song and I was particularly fond of one guitar whose body looked as though it had been roughly sanded back by an industrial sander; possibly one of his first guitars, but the sound was mint. He also has one of the cleanest falsetto voices I have ever heard, and the change from chest to head to falsetto voice was virtually seamless, and as a singer I say, you bastard, I’ve been working for ages to get a seamless range and it still ain’t right.
While Carmel made best buddies with the crazy female idolizes, Tim, Rachel and I proceeded to get some unwanted attention from at least 2 sides with hands everywhere they shouldn’t be; as a side note, I’ve always wondered: when you are squashed together like sardines, where are you supposed to put your hands? I only ask because I would have informed someone behind me that my ass was not one of them… On top of the unwanted hand attention, the female fans in front of us went a little too crazy when the drummer JJ Johnson threw his drumstick right at us, hitting Tim smack in the nose (a drum stick he very quickly stuck down his pants to hide) It was actually Tim’s lucky night, also getting hit by John’s pick…bastard. In the fallout one of the girls whacked me with her elbow…ah whoever said that music was not a contact sport no longer has my support. So Tim gets a stick and pick as souvenirs and I get the imprint of a tweenteen’s elbow in my face. Yet again I digress.
Having done some research into the guy before going into his gig, I began to see how deeply rooted he was in blues (lifestyle and all that goes with that…) and how it has shaped his music from pop charts that I had thought characterized him, to much more mature philosophical charts like Gravity and Waitin’ on the World to Change. After hearing this guy I am definitely going to listen to a little more of the blues, I think it is something I could somehow integrate into my own music. Cheers Mr. Mayer for a great birthday present.
