So, hm. John Mayer

Good news! Internet working! Landoverlord installed or plugged in or whatever the wireless router thing. My computer is a little slower than it was, but I am so not complaining. Anyway. I've been wanting to write about this for a little while now, so here it is. A couple of weeks ago, I went to see John Mayer. I went for two reasons (and ONLY two reasons). 1) it was a favor to Tonya. She had tickets, and no one else wanted to go, so I went. Sometimes, I'm a sucker. 2) Colbie Calait was opening. Now, I generally don't like female singers at all, but I have her cd, and I like every song on it, so I wanted to see if she can bring it live. She totally can. I was even more impressed with her live than I was with the cd. She's got a groovy husky voice going on, and she's all of like 19 years old or something. Girl needs to eat a sandwich or twenty, but we'll forgive her. Now. John Mayer. First, the bad. He has a stroke face when he sings. Like, big time. Like, all the time. However, I think he knows it. He said something about not being a concert singer, I think that's what he meant. So, I admit, I giggled more than a few times at his weird facial contortions. Also, when he played those awful over-played radio song I groaned, whined, and sank down in my chair, practically to the floor. Dude, the world is not going to change just because you said so. Take a happy pill. Stop whining. Shit. Now for the surprising good. Boy can play a guitar. For real. There were times during the show when he would practically just sit down on the stage and start playing the blues. In those magical moments it was like no one else was there but him and his guitar. He would concentrate, like he was thinking 'what can I make this thing do' and he would just play and play. If he had kept he strokey mouth shut more and played more guitar, I'd have liked it even more. He DIDN'T play "your body is a wonderland". Big bonus points for that. He took an audience vote, and actually listened to the crowd. Didn't play it. Big plus. He played four covers. This impressed me because he has an extensive lyrical library of his own, yet maybe even he gets sick of his own songs. He opened with "Sweet home Chicago" - not original, but well played. About 1/4 of the way through he played "Free Falling" it was a unique twist on a song I already loved, so cool. A while after that "Crossroads" - blues, perfect, he owned it, telling you the man should switch to all blues (ok, with a few ballads thrown in, I am a girl after all.) The first song of the encore was "Panama" during which JM played his Van Halen red and white authentic, and one of his band members was singing - this was Fantastic. Until. Until the dumb bitch hussies in front of us looked around confused and one of them said "Who's Pamela?" I shit you not. I wanted to hit her just for that. Another big big plus (that, or I'm going soft) is when he appreciated the crowd, which he did a lot, I really felt like he meant it. Not a gee-whiz look at me, now I'm going to go backstage and say how fackin stupid people are, but a real and actual appreciation that he gets to do what he loves and that other people dig it. I really think he was sincere, and he spoke earnestly. Plus - he had no shirt on for the encore. Kudos, Jen, the man is ripped. He closed the show with "Say what you need to say" which is a big theme song in my life right now. I am a huge music lover, and also a devourer of lyrics. This song matters to me. It made me actually contact M&B, instead of just thinking about it. It makes me tell my parents I love them a lot more than I did before. It's making me think about telling a lot of people a lot of things. Plus, I sound g o o d singing along with this one.