In the sweltering heat of Chicago, I find out what John Mayer looks like when he’s getting it on.  Unfortunately, we are both clothed at the time – he on stage, me in a sea of 10,000 people crammed into an open lot at A Finkl and Sons, a steel mill in the middle of downtown.  Mayer makes love to his guitar, and while feeling voyeuristic, I was brought into the performance like never before.

The show begins promptly at 6.30pm with Martin Sexton opening.  Truthfully, I’m too damned hot and too far back to even see the monitors for Sexton and the Boston trio Guster.  I’d only heard of Guster, but never heard their music.  To give them their due, they sound great, and have an amazing drummer who forgoes drumsticks and beats the skins with his bare hands.  Definitely a band to further explore.

With the temperature reaching around 92 Fahrenheit, the heat is unbearable and muggy.  Mayer opens his set with a cover of Nelly’s ‘Hot In Herre’, priming the crowd for the evening.  Steam rises from the stage, due both to the heat index, as well as the music.  Mayer tears right into ‘3 x 5’ followed by one of my favourites ‘My Stupid Mouth’.

His songs echo their album counterparts, but the folk-rock is infused with a heady bluesy sound that’s absolutely sexy.  Mayer plays nearly every song from Room For Squares and even throws in some covers.  One song alone, ‘83’ has snippets of ‘King of Pain’, ’Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ and ‘Let’s Hear It For the Boy’.

Everyone seems to be in a zen-like state, fuelled by Mayer’s magic.  He, as a person, has said he has no stage presence, which is true.  There’s not a lot of banter with the audience, (though he did say ‘Your Body Is A Wonderland’ is “a song about girlie parts”) but to see the man’s face while he’s caressing his guitar shows the purity that comes from a true artist.  He may make orgasmic faces, but there’s also an underlying innocence that portrays his true passion for music.

Mayer plays for nearly two hours before leaving.  For most of his encore, he ditches the band, and with an acoustic guitar, played ‘Love Soon’, ’Sucker’ and ‘Covered In Rain’.  I’m in heaven, as the first two are my absolute favourite Mayer tunes.  He returns to his band, and does an extended jam of ‘Neon’ to close the show.

This show has renewed my faith in the music industry.  All three artists are incredibly gracious and thankful of fan support.  All I can say is, watch out UK…here comes John Mayer!
(5/5)

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