This guy can play, and this guy can sing, and this Blu-ray captures it all.
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John Mayer has won multiple Grammys, and this concert showcases his multiple musical sides. Make that three. The first set of this concert at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles features him alone onstage in an acoustic set for a pop-folk sequence; the second set features the John Mayer Trio (Mayer, bassist Pino Palladino, and drummer Steve Jordan) in a mostly blues sequence with a touch of R&B and funk; while the third set finds Mayer joined onstage by his full band, playing easy listening pop-rock with (again) an occasional touch of funk. Of the 22 songs performed here, Mayer had a hand in writing 17 of them, with the remaining songs being covers, including ones of Jimi Hendrix, Tom Petty, B.B. King, and Otis Redding. Intercut among the concert footage are behind-the-scenes segments and a split-up interview footage of Mayer talking up a storm while he drives, his doggie in the passenger seat.
You get the feeling that this guy is as restless as his pooch. Part of him wants to play to the tune of success, and another part of him wants to do his own musical thing. Since I can only play the radio, I have no advice to give musicians. But I will say this: though he throws himself into every single song, he seems to have the most fun doing his blues thing with the trio. The cheesy songs ("Your Body is a Wonderland" earned him a Grammy, and "Daughters" has become a wedding standard) have paid the bills, but Mayer has played the blues with Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, and B.B. King, and I'm betting that there's a bluesman inside him just waiting to shed completely his pop-rock image.
That's going to be tough, because one scan of the audience tells you that he's a favorite with women, who really seem to respond to the sentimental songs he writes about relationships . . . and females. Whether it was his idea or a someone at his record label's, he even seems to write for women. After singing all those sappy songs, no wonder he feels the need to sing the blues. There was a hint of it in his Grammy-winning album, "Continuum," and so I would guess that Mayer will continue to move in that direction.
What this concert shows is how accomplished and how passionate Mayer is about his music. Whether he's playing acoustic or electric, his guitar-work is stellar, with quick-fingered rolls and up-the-neck playing that never falters. When he's alone onstage, it sounds as if there are two guitars, because he plays the guitar the way people play piano-with two distinctly different movements, made possible by his quickness. His fingers seem to glide effortlessly, as does his voice, which slips easily from a raspy blues voice to a smooth falsetto and back again. He's just a sensitive and soulful guy, which is why the ladies love him. I think I saw only a dozen guys in the audience, and they were probably dragged there by their girlfriends and wives. But if these guys were smart, they were taking notes. When women respond to someone this totally, it's tempting to try to figure out how he does it. And guess what? It's not physical. Some performers gyrate, some performers prance, some performers play to the crowd . . . but not this guy. He stands in one spot-in this case, on an oriental rug onstage-and taps his left foot to the beat of the music. The closest he came to playing physically to the crowd was pointing at them toward the end of one of those heaping portions of cheese. Mostly, it's the soulful thing and the lyrics that rope them in. And we've known this since Frankie Valli and the Bee Gees: real men can sing falsetto, and if those guys can hold the high notes, it's really music to their female audience's ears.
Some concert producers aim for a "you are there" feeling, which is almost impossible to capture. Others opt for quick cuts and a mix of intense close-ups and body parts to make it seem more active than it might be in person. The producers of "Where the Light Is" opted for a 360 treatment. Not only do we see Mayer from the crowd's perspective, but we also see him from behind as he's playing, with the crowd in the distance, and we get so close to him onstage that we can even read the scrolling teleprompter at his feet. There are occasional, interesting shots from above, too-some of which are pullbacks, and others of which are gentle 360s. We also get the view from the middle seats, with the camera panning shadow-heads in the foreground as we glimpse an animated Mayer in between them. Though there's constant variety and movement, the camera work never seems over-caffeinated. It adds as much interest to the concert as the lighting, which is mostly a darkened stage lit by a few selective spots. A few colored lights come out for the third set, but otherwise it's a pretty bare-bones treatment that shines the light on Mr. Mayer without gimmickry. If there were smoke or mirrors at this concert, it was in the women's purses.
But the one thing guys didn't have to take note of was Mayer's ad libs. His attempts at humor weren't very good, which is probably why he mostly played. The car interview footage substituted for most of the concert banter . . . and that's another story. Only fans will appreciate the interview material. People new to Mayer and his music looking for insight won't find much of interest. It's all about him, and his "feelings," which again makes me think of his audience. Every time he started to talk about himself, I got up to check the time, grab a beer, rearrange my sock drawer--anything I could think of. But I don't imagine the women were doing such things.
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