Bringing the Drama

Last Wednesday I went to see John Mayer. I’ve seen JM a few times over the past 8 years. I was not really impressed with the latest album, but the main reason I still care about him is that he can still play the guitar live and make me forget that he has stupid songs like “Say”. Maybe he’s gone over the top with this heart throb image he’s trying to project now, and maybe his stage looks like a curtain draped bed, but he can still impress me with the guitar playing.

After having seen Jay-Z at the same arena a couple of weeks before, I noticed and mentioned to friends at the JM show “if Jay-Z was the show where black people get dressed up, John Mayer is the show where white people get dressed up”. It was striking how true that statement was. More tight clothes, more of it all. On the way to get a bloody mary, I stopped off in the restroom. I’m standing at the urinal when I hear a liquid hit the floor behind me, and the cleaning guy on the other side of the room say “what are you doing man? get IN the bathroom!” I completed my task, and turned around to see some dude had thrown up in the doorway of the restroom. He made it all the way from his seat to the doorway and couldn’t make it the extra 10 feet. Pathetic. I went and got my bloody mary thinking “this may be my last John Mayer show, this crowd has changed over the years to something I’m not a part of anymore.”

I took my seat on the front of the upper deck. Michael Franti was still playing, so we watched him. All his songs sounded the same, and I guess I’ve had less patience for opening acts lately. He came out into the crowd to perform a couple of times, including one time where he started playing in the aisle right below us on the lower level, but sadly I lost that picture in the transfer from camera to computer.

John Mayer finally hit the stage and led off with Heartbreak Warfare. It is one of the few songs I like off the new album, partly because of the cool video he did to go along with it. No Such Thing came 2nd, which I thought was weird. They rolled through some good songs, including I Don’t Trust Myself With Loving You. One of the things I liked so much about Continuum, was the guitar solos. They are amazing to hear live. They’re the reason I go to the live shows. This solo did not disappoint. Before the next song stared, there was an electric guitar malfunction, so he called an audible and did two songs acoustic, by himself. The first was Comfortable, which was the favorite song of my friend TH way back when he was telling me about this new guy John Mayer in 2001 or 2002. I had never heard it live, so it was cool to finally hear it. After Neon (another golden oldie), the technical problem was fixed so the band came back out.

Even the songs that I think were stupid before sounded and looked good live, including Who Says. He finished up with his cover version of Crossroads, so he ended up playing the 3 songs on the new album that I think are the only good ones. It was one of the better shows I’ve seen him play. I would go see him again, despite the immature crowds and the stupid marketing. I get it, I get the big production and the fancy band, but at the heart of it is still that guy who I admire playing smooth guitar solos, and that’s enough for me.

In the 2nd half of my college experience, back when I was young and naive, I bought cds like they were going out of style. I probably spent half of my intern money on cds after my first intern semester. I sometimes would drive up to Greenville, SC just to go to the record shop when I was working in Greenwood, SC. Not every visit netted something important, but I did happen to score a vinyl copy of the Pearl Jam live album, which apparently is out of print and worth more than the $12 I paid for it. My 5th year when I had an on-campus job, I probably still spent way too much on cds.

The year I was living in Clemson being a bum, (aka believing a headhunter really did have an ‘in’ for a job for me and was just working things out) I went to the local music store a lot. The owner gave me the inside scoop on new bands, and I was always a sucker for albums that were $6.99 and $7.99, no matter who they were. If someone recommended them, I’d buy them. I found John Mayer this way before ‘No Such Thing’ broke. Yeah, I am that cool. I also found this guy, Pete Yorn. His first album is still one of my favorites. My friend Marika and I called him the mimbo. It used to be ‘smoldering mimbo’, but now I think it’s just mimbo. I may be the only person still using the nickname. Anyway, he had a song on his 2nd album called ‘Burrito’ that Marika and I would laugh about. I saw him live in 2003, and he played Burrito that night. It was one of the highlights of the show.

I had seen Pete Yorn listed for a NOLA tour stop a couple of weeks ago, but seeing how it was on a Tuesday was going to make it difficult to find a concert friend. With friends being married and maybe with kids now, they somehow don’t have time anymore for weeknight concerts. Anyway, so I was talking to my friend Jacob last week and he asked me if I wanted to go see Pete Yorn. We’re going Tuesday, and we’ll both have beards because Jacob’s in Whiskerino again and I’m growing mine out again. If time permits, I’ll get a picture. Word.

John Mayer did a video for the song Heartbreak Warfare using something called augmented reality. I tried it out last night and it was cool. I am one of the very few people in the country without a printer at home, so I drew the heart using a pen and a black Sharpie. It worked though on my 2nd attempt, because the first time I drew the heart too big. My 2nd attempt was about 2″x2″. If you have a printer, you may want to skip this step. So if you have a webcam, check it out. The song is great too. I really like the smoothness of it.

If you aren’t able to work it, I found a video on youtube someone made with the video and it should give you an idea of how the AR works. The fingers and stuff on the side, that’s the person’s fingers. When you activate your webcam, it’s kind of like a window, so when you match up the heart on the paper to the heart on the screen, the video starts up. The heart on the paper acts as an anchor for the animation. So when you move the heart, the animation moves, when you twist it, the animation twists. Got all that? It’ll makes sense once you see it in action.