Re: hey
I wish I could have gotten a City Love shirt...TOO SMALL!!!
Quote:John Mayer true to the blues, image during show at Superpages.com Center
09:59 AM CDT on Monday, August 4, 2008
By MIKE DANIEL / The Dallas Morning News
mdaniel@dallasnews.com
John Mayer is a stud.
Don't even try to argue that he's not. You will lose. Besides, if you were one of the 20,000 plus who took in his awe-summoning concert at Superpages.com Center on Friday, you're almost certain to agree. Sheesh: I want to have his children.
Think about it: Mr. Mayer packed that house nearly two years after his last studio album, the double-platinum Continuum, was released. He's masterful at milking his nascent public image as the sensitive pop songwriter with the Cocker-spliced-into-Clapton vocal style (for the ladies) while transforming into one of this generation's definitive dater-of-starlets as well as rock guitarists (for the gents). He has mad cred in so many musical and commercial circles that he's a divine intervention away from religious importance.
He's eternally loose, eternally giddy and eternally charming – and the guy looks fab without a shirt, which he had no use for in the 100-plus-degree temps onstage. That left-arm tat sleeve is coming together nicely, sir.
So is his neck-deep wade into the blue pool, if his live performance was indicative. He's not only learned to pickle his own songs in various bluesy vinegars (Friday's version of "I Don't Trust Myself" oozed out with a chewy, sexy drawl), but he's become deft with re-envisioning other anthems (Cream's "Crossroads" played like a brand-spanking- new soul-rock shuffle). That fresh skill only augments his cocksure, tone-defined lead playing and his rarely paralleled stage presence.
What Mr. Mayer the live performer owns in spades (not to mention in hearts; heck, he's probably got a full deck up his sleeve ... wait: in his socks?), opener Colbie Caillat lacks. The MySpace-launched, SoCal-bred pop phenom can sing, but barely; her native huskiness is regularly cracked by trebly pops and improper projection, and her falsetto shatters. She plodded around stage and appeared self-conscious, only shining during the extended cut "Battle" more because her band let loose when she couldn't.
Her cover? The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back." It should have been retitled "I Want You Backstage," as in done and gone.
Paramore
What an opening act. This is one of the best I think he's ever had aside from James Morrison or Ray LaMontagne during the Trio tour. They were full of energy and played to a pretty good crowd. There was a good number of their fans there who actually stayed for John's show too. They fuckin' rocked it from beginning to end. I don't care if it's not your cup of tea, you cannot deny they were ready to give you all they had. I was so excited to hear Harley and she certainly delivered. The band was excited to play, they were humble, appreciative and what I think I loved most about their performance was that everyone was aware that their style of music and John's are really aligned and they still held nothing back. John even acknowledged them only four songs into his set. He said "that girl can sing her face off." I could see JJ, John and Robbie watching the show from the wings and bobbing their heads. I don't really know if John ever felt the need to do justice to his opening act, but last night might have been the first time. Haley's voice is the real deal. The next to last song had a Hallelujah tease (which my best friend immediately recognized from Shrek of all things) at the beginning and I thought "oh shit, is she gonna sing this entire song?" Sadly, she did not but it would have been nice. I will have more pics of her later, Ryan. I'm really glad I got a chance to hear the band. If you can get there early enough, please do so as well.
John's Set
Well you know what was played. The stand outs last night for me were, I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You), Mercy and Wheel. I was happy to hear Stitched Up last night. (someone asked how that went, well it was the last line of the song before "another you:; 'I'm gonna find[pause, pause,pause]Exactly how you hear it') Bob Reynolds did a great job on the solo. Mercy has been a song in this summer's set list that keeps getting better and better. It was just sick, sick, sick. I mean it had pneumonia, it had a Staph infection, it was just nasty. Unfortunately, he didn't get down on the floor with it as in past performances, but it delivered nonetheless. IDTMWLY, I think had everyone in a good mood. There was a lot of beer drinking and jolly folks at this show and as soon as the shirt came off before Good Love Is On The Way, ladies were in a tizzy to get a picture and the security guards had to play goalie and kick them back to their seats.
Wheel was just beautiful. It felt like he needed to play it, get it out of him and leave it on the stage. With a great slow and quiet intro and solo it was probably one of the longest versions on the tour so far. I never tire of hearing it. It's truly is his most underrated tune. Now, normally I don't hoop and holler about Why Georgia, but it was a great version tonight. He even kept the line "leave this shit behind." The crowd really got into it and sang pretty well on the audience's part and he had the biggest grin on his face too. We got a mini-sermon during Gravity about becoming "a fucking asshole" when you live your life like it's short instead of approaching it like you've got miles to go before you sleep.(paraphrasing) You can tell he's really working through some stuff, but the stage is the best place to do it. Free Fallin' got one of the loudest reactions, which was shocking. I know it's picked up some speed as of late, but everyone around me loved hearing it.
Encore
The encore had some surprises for me. Even though I wanted Neon, we got a great version of Who Did You Think I Was, solo electric. He even through in some Rock Me Baby by BB King at the end. And then we get Paul Simon! I didn't see that coming at all. I didn't immediately recognize the song and I thought he was playing In Repair. I was secretly hoping for some Radiohead, but this was a nice surprise. There were a few people, and I mean very few that knew the song and where singing along, but here again, this is why John's shows are not to be taken for granted. Say finally sounded the way it should, IMO. Earlier in the tour, I swear some of the vocals were not right, but they executed it well this evening.
As I said, a solid show with a fantastic opening act. John was doing a lot of dancing and shimmying on the stage. It was time and money well spent.
I will say my only complaint was the Merch. There wasn't anything in the least bit interesting and again we got a lot of Medium-Only for the girl shirts and even the Eco-shirt with the AKOG logo was $60.00 and was in Extra Small - Only. And as I said, the Queen City got no Love at the merch table. Edited by: ciamar at: 8/20/08 8:41 pm
Re: Raleigh
Another fantastic show by John and the boys. Well, they are men actually and serve as one of the best support teams he's had I think. They can play anything and change up these songs in the best way.
I heard Stop This Train for the first time tonight. Unfortunately, there was a big screamer behind me with beer in hand that did a little disservice to the song, but she was none the wiser. In fact this crowd, though smaller than last year, was just as rowdy.
Mercy and Wheel were worth the price of admission alone. I love that I never used to hear it before and now we hear it all summer. I'm glad he chose to put it back into rotation. There was a lot of banter tonight about the end of summer, pride in being a musician, the lack of normalcy in being a musician. He's really working through things on stage and I am so very interested in how this will play into the next record.
Re: WheelWheel in The Woodlands was a highlight for me too. That's when he told the story about his guitar that he bought with his gas station money and he looked like he was on the verge of tears.
Come Back To Bed, electric in Dallas and of course, Cold Shot. All hail the SRV strat.
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