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John Mayer Live in Hammersmith Apollo, London

 

My second John Mayer concert, Hammersmith Apollo on the 5th February 2004 was absolutely packed. The venue was much bigger than last year's Shepards Bush but the crowd turned up and quite a number more guys than you would expect. 

We endured a pretty solid opening band- which I'd like to find out more about, and then John (i don't want to be one of those people who refer to celebrities on a first name basis- but it gets tedious and overly formal sometimes so from here on, John Mayer is now- just John) and co. came onstage- John clad in what a friend of mine described- as a Christmas time sweater and started it off with a personal favourite- clarity.  The two piece wind section comprising of a trumpet and saxophone was an excellent touch- and gave a more soulful feel to the music.

I had been anticipating hearing most of his new songs live as i thought the new album Heavier Things was pretty song based, rather than instrument based like his previous works. I was anticipating extra riffs and nifty solos- which came only later on with an interpolation of ...the most beautiful girl in the world in your body is a wonderland and even a short taste of The Darkness's I believe in a thing called love a small tribute to Britain.

the band was pretty tight, with the chinesey dude on backing guitars and Dela on bass, but i thought the drummer was not too good. John's banter with the audience was pretty brash but the audience seemed to love his stuff and i guess he knew it as well. i wish i was able to record bootlegs of unique concert-only versions of something's missing and come back to bed- which featured narratives and different riffs. 

for the encore, he played some  new material called distance and closed with st. patricks day.  Despite pleas from the audience, he didnt play neon but covered pretty much most of Room for Squares and Heavier Things. All in - a damn good performance- i have to get me one of those digicams with audio recording. 

...and did i mention i managed to get a roadie to throw a cool John Mayer plectrum at me ?

edit- i just found out the plec i got with the word chaves on it belongs to Chaves- John's chinese/japanese backing guitarist.

 

 

set list

this is edited from the setlist of their gig in dublin- the order is slightly different but the songs similiar

Clarity (The Choruses Go Woooo)
Bigger Than My Body 
My Stupid Mouth 
Something's Missing
Wheel
No Such Thing 
 Back To You
 Daughta 
 Come Back To Bed
 Your Body is a Wonderland
Why Georgia 
encore
distance (unreleased)
St. Patrick's Day


   
   

 

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