Excuse me for a moment, while I tuck my man card into a secure location. Yes, I am a big fan of the entire John Mayer collection, and I do have every song that has been released. He, more than any artist in the world, is somebody I love seeing play a live show. In fact, I have seen him play live on eight different occasions, and if all goes as planned that number will be 10 by the end of the summer.
My wife doesn’t understand this love of seeing his live shows, she agrees his music is very good but doesn’t understand why I go to such lengths to see him live. Some of the “insanity” as she likes to say…
1.) I once left Myrtle Beach mid-vacation to drive 4 hours back to Charlotte, watch the show and then turn around and drive back to Myrtle Beach the following morning.
2.) I had purchased tickets to a John Mayer performance in Charlotte, then was transferred by work from Charlotte to Detroit. I had tickets in row 8 and was not about to miss this show, so I drove 10.5 hours from Detroit to Charlotte on Saturday morning, saw the show at 7:30pm and drove back to Detroit on Sunday morning.
3.) Mayer was going to be playing at Red Rocks, just outside of Denver, CO. I have always wanted to see a show at this venue, so I bought the tickets and made a mini-vacation for us!
There is one song in particular “Slow Dancing In A Burning Room”, that I cannot wait to hear live, in fact it is by far my favorite live song by any artist. Mayer always does an excellent job of crafting lyrics and an equally excellent job of combining those lyrics with unbelievable guitar play. This song is one of many that his use of the guitar seems to act as another vocalist, as if it were a duet. My love for the live version of ‘Slow Dancing In A Burning Room’ has everything to do with Mayer’s use of the guitar. Upon hearing the first couple of notes, I am instantly transported back to that Red Rocks performance, and although there are thousands of people there, it is almost as if I am listening to the song alone.
I thoroughly enjoy his entire performance but it is this song more than any other that would get me to drive out of my way to see a performance. I also understand in life I am only get a limited number of opportunities to see him perform live, so I make sure I take the opportunity. My hope is everybody finds something they enjoy as much as I enjoy seeing one of his live performances. If this is a cause to lose the man card, can it be replaced with some John Mayer tickets? LOL!
Life In Lyrics 