John Mayer 2/5/10

My wife and I saw John Mayer last night. Not sure how many people were there - looked like a sellout, maybe about 15,000. Once again, I came away impressed with the guy.

Yes, on one level, he's an immature egomaniac and life is a game to him. But his music to me has always been real, instead of product. Some will snicker at that. Ha ha ha! You're wrong. Don't confuse "popular on radio" with product. Most popular music on the radio IS product. But not all. Taylor Swift is product. Mayer's music, if you'd listen to an entire CD, is closer to blues/jazz than pop. And the guy can flat out play. Not my style - Steve Ray Wannabe. But he's got it down pat and it does sound good. The songs? His new CD is damn good. Worst song on it is the single with said Swift. That song is sorta crap. The rest of the CD is really good. Original brand new sound? No - his influences are pretty easy to see. Doesn't matter. He's writing exactly what he wants to write. His music isn't being approved by a committee of 40 something balding pro songwriters in a meeting room.

Singing live, Mayer sounds essentially just like his CD. Remember the day when that used to be everyone? Um, actually, nowadays many artists are using autotune live. It's becoming a joke. I very much appreciate an artist who doesn't try to do live studio tricks. No backing tracks, no live autotune - just hire a band of fantastic musicians (like Steve Jordan on drums) and there you go. I saw the YouTube of Taylor Swift at the Grammies - pretty bad. Not a real singer. Close enough that the computer can "fix" her.

Disclaimer - Backing tracks are for unknown nobodies who can't afford to hire a band but still want to play small gigs (raises hand.) NOT for big name artists who are either cheap or not talented enough to pull off their own music live.

Disclaimer 2 - John Mayer did use autotune on his last CD. Everyone does. In the old days they'd just do 100 takes. I don't see much difference. Everything about the studio is cheating. But if you can pull it off live, I'm OK with it.

Here's another thing I liked. The opening band was too loud. If you've been to enough concerts, you know that the main act is ALWAYS louder than the opening act. And the opening act was too loud. They finished and I said "Oh no." But when Mayer hit the stage, they were actually softer than the opening act. They turned it DOWN a little. And it sounded way way better. I've never, EVER seen that.

A lot of the show was Mayer playing Stevie Ray Strat solos. It's hard to understand why there were so many teenage girls and 20-something women willing to sit through his 2 minute blues wankings. They can't be digging on it. I think they just tolerate it.

My Garmin successfully navigated the streets of Tampa and we made it out in one piece. A fun night.

So... for a small gig musician, what lessons did I take from watching John Mayer? The biggest thing that impressed me was that they sounded fantastic. The second biggest thing was getting just the right volume for the venue. Any softer and it would've been The Beatles. Any louder and it would have hurt. One negative - He takes too long between songs. Some long pauses whilest he walks off to the side, gets a drink, gets a new three thousand dollar strat to use for one song, looks in a mirror, whatever he's doing. I've been trying to learn to avoid doing that.

But with all the bashing I'm doing on the guy on a personal level (and really I don't know him at all,) I'll say this - he's the real deal, in an era where 99% of the crap out there was done by pro songwriters or committees. If you don't agree, go listen to "Neon" on Room for Squares.