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Energetic John Mayer holds Blossom fans in palm of his hand
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal popular music writer
Published on Saturday, Jul 19, 2008
When singer/songwriter/guitarist John Mayer played Blossom in 2004, he seemed to be a conflicted artist. Between songs he kept ripping off searing guitar licks, stopping himself, then returning to his groovy, adult alternative pop tunes as if afraid to alienate the folks who just wanted to be told their body was a wonderland. Eventually, his inner guitar hero escaped and he played an off-the-cuff and credible take on Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child (Slight Return).
Since then Mayer has given that persona plenty of room to breathe, particularly on Try!, his 2005 live trio album with drummer Steve Jordan and bassist Pino Palladino, and his recent multiformat live album, Where the Light Is.
In 2008, the pop star and the guitar hero have successfully merged. Thursday night at Blossom, in front of a large, multigenerational, multicultural crowd, he channeled both sides of his artistic nature, and with his stage charisma and enthusiasm he held fans in the palms of his fretboard-fondling hands for nearly two hours.
Mayer's set lists are usually similar in content (with a few surprises thrown in) but wildly variant in sequence. At Blossom, sporting a tank top that showed off his tattooed arms, he opened the set upbeat and funky with the bluesy riff of Good Love Is on the Way, quickly followed by Bigger Than My Body.
Fronting a septet that featured two horn players, former Pretenders guitarist Robbie McIntosh and singer/songwriter/ex-Follow for Now frontman David Ryan Harris, Mayer was a nonstop ball of energy, and his many guitar solos invoked the styles of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Cray and some Eddie Van Halen pyrotechnics. The crowd gave its energy right back to him by singing along and shimmying in the seats.
For listeners who find the grooves on Mayer's studio albums to be a bit too mannered, in concert,everything is cranked up to 11 (well, maybe more like 91/2). The laid-back Jack Johnson-like beat of Belief actually became funky, and the band turned Vultures into a funk jam with Mayer whistling harmony to his own guitar solo and dropping in a couple verses of Marvin Gaye's Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler). He also extended his R&B ballad Gravity with the best, most tasteful and lengthy slow-building solo of the evening and a monologue on the power of love.
While Mayer is no longer shy about his love of leaning way back, scrunching up his face and wailing on his Stratocaster, he still appeared a bit surprised that his audience will pretty much allow him any and all musical indulgences.
''Let me tell you why you're so great,'' he said to the audience after a slow, 12-bar blues take of the classic Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do featuring a flashy solo, filled with tremolo bar theatrics. ''People talk about the death of pop culture, but I just played you guys one of the oldest R&B songs there is. Thanks for letting me do that.''
He peppered the set with other covers,including an acoustic Free Fallin' (yep, it was a sing-along) and dropped in bits of Daryl Hall's Every Time You Go Away and Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer.
Mayer also is apparently comfortable enough as pop star/guitar hero to delete from his set a few of his breakthrough hits, including Daughters and the musical mash note Your Body Is a Wonderland, but the crowd didn't seem to mind.
If Mayer ever decides to bring that energy and spontaneity to his studio albums, he might work his way out of the (multiplatinum) mellow ghetto his detractors place him in alongside Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews.
But though Mayer is very much a 21st-century, hyper-self-aware pop star (like his Fall Out Boy buddy Pete Wentz) and has referred to himself as ''insufferable,'' he seems to have a pretty good handle on his music and career.
Opener Colbie Caillat should be spending her summer on the side of the stage watching Mayer work an audience each night, because while the Bubbly singer/songwriter's tunes from her debut album Coco are pleasant enough and she sang them well, her stage presence is lacking, a fact to which even she made reference. Singer/songwriter/Brett Dennan also performed.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
When singer/songwriter/guitarist John Mayer played Blossom in 2004, he seemed to be a conflicted artist. Between songs he kept ripping off searing guitar licks, stopping himself, then returning to his groovy, adult alternative pop tunes as if afraid to alienate the folks who just wanted to be told their body was a wonderland. Eventually, his inner guitar hero escaped and he played an off-the-cuff and credible take on Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child (Slight Return).
Get the full article here.
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