I love you John Mayer

jm1

October 1, 2010 will always be the night John Mayer got me wet, made me fall hard for him, and broke my heart over and over again. All in one hour or so, I think.



I must confess I was not an instant fan of John Mayer. When Room for Squares came out in 2001, I was more into R&B and hip-hop those days. Of course, I became familiar with Your Body is a Wonderland as it became an instant hit. It did become one of my favorite songs during that period. The next song from him that became my favorite is Daughters, from his second album, Heavier Things.

Then Continuum was released, and I was a goner. I fell completely in love with the genius that is John Mayer. "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room" perfectly described what I was feeling at that time. Then there was "Dreaming with a Broken Heart" and I just about cried listening to that song. Waiting on the World to Change, Gravity and Stop This Train also became favorites.

And so we all know that after that album, he became fodder of tabloid magazines and blogs and paparazzi. I had a hard time reconciling the sensitive singer-songwriter with the guy who made an impromptu press conference to discuss his breakup with Jennifer Aniston. Although yes, I was still a big fan of Continuum, and would listen to Dreaming with a Broken Heart, Slow Dancing in a Burning Room and Gravity during the dark days.

Who Says came out last year, and I was lemme say, completely meh about it. But then I heard Heartbreak Warfare, and that intro, it killed me. And the lyrics:

Drop his name
Push it in and twist the knife again
Watch my face
As I pretend to feel no pain

My heart literally hurt while listening to that song. If that song came out earlier, I would've bawled my eyes out every time I would hear it.

And so it came to pass that a concert in Manila was announced for May this year. For reasons unknown (although I suspect it was just logical scheduling), it was moved to October. The move to October was serendipitous as I had money, weather will be cooler, and an event I was organizing was finalized to be NOT on the same day as the concert.

Not as serendipitous as I thought, because October also brought the rains.

It rained the whole day, and I was seriously praying that it continues to rain, just as long it won't rain anymore that night. It wasn't raining anymore when my friend, Joy, and I got a cab to the concert grounds. However, by the time we got to Manila, it was raining cats and dogs already.

Joy then thought of buying raincoats at the hardware store. Funny side kwento -- we thought the yellow raincoat was too bright, so we bought the more expensive three-tone raincoat. We wanted to be fashionable and trendy, even in a storm LOL.

We got to the concert grounds, and was dismayed that our seats were in front of this:

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Crappy phonecam is crappy sry!

Joy then asked the bouncer if we can get other seats, just as long as there weren't gonna be people sitting on them. The bouncer said yes, and so off we went to find a better location. We headed to the railing separating the Silver and Gold sections, found the first row of the Silver section empty, and placed our butts firmly on those seats.

However, the whole time we were waiting for the show to start, during the front-act show of Aiza Seguerra, and while John Mayer's crew finally uncovered his equipment, Joy and I were feeling anxious. We feared every person who passed by, thinking they might kick us out as those were their seats.

All this time, rain was pouring on and off. Most had their umbrellas out, and it looked like we wouldn't be able to see anything when the show started.

Sry, camphone photo again.

And then the lights finally dimmed, and came back on, and John Mayer appeared.

I think my heart burst with squee when I saw him, with his guitar, and when he finally started playing. HOMAYGAAAAAAAAAWD.

John Mayer, in Red, Yellow and Blue

He was just incredible. Really a guitar god. The audience was putty in his hands. We were his -- hook, line and sinker, rain or more rain.

There were reports in Twitter that 3/4 of the guys came out of the closet when he sang Your Body is a Wonderland, with a really buff guy shouting, "I love you John!". The guy behind us (who was the sweetest thing, srsly) was shouting invectives at John ("You asshole! Tangina mo John Mayer!") because I think he was getting too excited already. Joy and I was just constantly making gigil at each other as we were just falling for John over and over and over again.

Oh and OMFG, I finally saw those mouth movements while he sang -- I was mesmerized. I srsly wanted to be the mic, where his lips were, and his guitar, where his hands were... Okae okae, sorry for sharing my fantasies LOL.

I was so thankful he sang Slow Dancing -- I was just in awe that he was singing it live, and I could see his face (on the big screen) filled with so much emotion, and my heart just hurt after that. And then Heartbreak Warfare was just like that -- I thought my heart was physically hurting already by then.

John Mayer in Black and White

Oh wow, and after he sang Gravity, I wanted to take him home and take care of him. I wanted to hug him tight and say "It's going to be alright". I seriously wanted to take away any pain he was feeling. It was THAT heart-wrenching.

Yes, I will say it again, he is a guitar god. Those guitar solos were brilliant! Maybe gratuitous for some, but he had every right to show off his skills. Thank you to those big screens so I can see his hands work his magic on the guitar. I mean, really, wow.

As I confessed earlier in this post, I only became a fan of John Mayer when he released Continuum, so I wasn't really familiar with some of the songs he sang that night. So sue me, I had a busy week and failed to catch up on his discography. The last song he sang was Half of my Heart, and mashed it up with Don't Stop Believing (IKR?!?). After a few "One more!" from us, he came back on stage for an encore and sang Edge of Desire.

He didn't interact much with the audience. (He did say the stage was slippery, and feared being in those kinds of Youtube videos LOL) But I think it was more than enough that his songs and the way he performed them had such an effect on us. He really didn't have to say anything anymore as he was already touching our hearts with his singing (corny, I know, but so true).

It was all worth it -- the rain, standing on our chairs, those stupid umbrellas of the Gold section. I swear, if I ever get a chance to watch him live again, I will highly invest so I can see him up close. He is so going to be worth it.

And with that, I will end this post the same way I started it.

I love you John Mayer.

3 comments

  1. was it CSI season 7 that made you listen to continuum? hehe :)

    ako first album pa lang fan na fan na. i can sing to almost all his songs from all 4 albums! :)

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  2. Gravity was played in an episode of House, too.

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  3. i was amused to see jm in the season premiere, pero i forgot about the songs rin afterwards. although yes, i liked them then already. i got a copy of continuum not knowing na he song waiting on the world to change and slow dancing in that premiere. a rewatch lang of the episode made me realize that those were the songs he sang hehe.

    jimelle, wala na di ko na nasundan house :(

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