It’s hard to tell who John Mayer really is or who he wants you to think he is. Everything seems layered, every response immediately analyzed for content and tone. To magazines, he’s a playboy; to the protestors, he’s a racist; to those who knew him a decade ago, he’s just some kid from Connecticut who plays the guitar. But whatever or whoever he is, thousands of fans love him and will continue to support him no matter what.
This was proven by the turnout at his concert at the Verizon Center Saturday night. The venue was full with an audience spanning older couples to college kids looking for a fun night out to tweens with their parents in tow.
Mayer began the night by playing “Heartbreak Warfare,” a track off of his latest full-length album, “Battle Studies.” This set the tone for the night: one of heartbreak and the celebration of it. “Perfectly Lonely” exemplified this feeling, as Mayer asked the room “How many people here consider themselves perfectly lonely?”
In one of the few moments where Mayer showed his true self on stage, he commented on a girl whose poster had been upside-down for the entire evening. After making a joke or two, he lost himself and then his place. The innocence of embarrassment was perhaps the most real and spontaneous he was for the entire concert.
The rock ‘n’ roll was divided by an acoustic set, a “crazy” idea he had, Mayer said. The medley consisted of several older songs, none of which were played in their entirety. It included “Your Body Is a Wonderland,” as well as other favorites. The theme of the medley, Mayer said, was that he “kept going lower,” but no matter how much he fiddled with the guitar, it remained slightly out of tune for the entire performance.
For a set approximately two hours in length, however, surprisingly few songs were played. The focus was on guitar solos instead. Mayer’s skill in this area is uncontested, but it seemed ridiculous to “wail” as long as he did and as many times as he did with the huge repertoire of songs he has to choose from. It was as though the guitar was there to make sure he didn’t talk. This did not seem to upset fans, as one woman behind me gushed “Oh my God he’s so good” more times than could be counted.
Mayer, also known for his occasional attempts at stand-up comedy, did a bit on how where people sat told him a lot about whom they were. “I’m being weird,” Mayer admitted after the rant lost its way.
Opening act Michael Franti was invited back on stage to help put his own spin on “Waiting on the World to Change.” After several somber numbers, Mayer switched to “Half of My Heart,” another song with content that matched the tone with which is it sung. But when the crowd wasn’t behaving the way he thought it should, Mayer turned to Broadway-inspired moves and vocals to get people on their feet and uncross their arms.
After what John Mayer called the “authoritative wrong note” and even more guitar play, the singer finally admitted that it was time to move on from instrumentals. “We are wasting time,” he said. “Let’s go to the next song.”
Mayer loosened up as the show went on, enjoying himself more all the way up until the end of the main part of the set, when he went through his thank yous. After a short speech about his problems with sincerity and insincerity — essentially his response to recent comments he’d made in various interviews — Mayer talked about how he was no longer in it for the money. He went off track for a bit while marveling at his on-the-spot idea for a heli-boat (the slogan for which would be “that’s a hella boat!” he said, laughing), but eventually returned to the matter at hand and thanked the audience again “from the bottom of my somewhat delirious heart.”
After a short encore of the singles “Who Says” and “Gravity” and a cover, the night was over and fans went home satisfied. John Mayer went back to his tour bus, presumably to begin patenting his new heli-boat idea.
You can reach this staff writer at mhollander@theeagleonline.com.
