After a light dinner and drinks with our fellow concert goers at a local Uptown pub, we made our way down to American Airlines Center for the John Mayer show.  As we parked in our traditional spot away from the arena in order to avoid paying $20 or more for parking, I started to feel nostalgic.  It has been about 3 years since I let my Mavericks season tickets go and I have not been down to the arena but a handful of times since.  It was like I was right there back in my comfort zone from 3 years ago.  The landscape on the walk from the parking spot to the arena had changed some, but for the most part was exactly as I remembered it.  As we approached the arena entrance I got a little giddy.  I was not giddy for the concert per se, but just to be back in the AAC.  It was going to be a good night.

As we sauntered around the concourse level looking at concert T-shirts and whatnot I took notice of the typical concert fans that we were seeing.  Let me just say that the Dallas cougar was out on the prowl this night…girls ranging from teenage to their ’50s were dressed up in their favorite low-cut tops and designer jeans.  It was obvious that we are in the middle of a seasonal change as the cougar’s shoe of choice ranged from knee-high leather boots to flip-flops.  I must say that the sight of the flip-flop did make me wish summer days were here.

After taking the long way around and two escalators and an elevator ride, we arrived at the Platinum level of the arena.  We supplied up on concert drinks and a quick bathroom pit stop and we located our seats.  Our seats were good, not great and afforded a nice view of the stage.  Just as we take our seats the lights go down and the crowd noise goes up in anticipation of John Mayer taking the stage (we missed the opening act due to our dinner and drinks running long so you will get no review of Michael Franti & Spearhead…I know you are crushed…)

Before I get into the music, I must first address something that was a major distraction to those in my concert party, and quite possibly many others.  John Mayer has stroke mouth when he sings.  Not just a little stroke mouth, or “carl mouth”  (for you Caddy Shack fans out there), but it was bordering on just too much to handle.  At some points, I didn’t know whether to just turn away as if I had just seen Two Girls, One Cup, or run up on stage and stuff a wallet in his mouth so that he didn’t bite his tongue off!  I have attached a few examples of John’s carl mouth for your viewing pleasure, or displeasure.  I have it on good authority that one of our girl friends finds these stroked out expressions to be hot.  Did I mention that she has a substance abuse problem?  You know who you are, and you should be ashamed!  At first I was disappointed that there were no big screens broadcasting the extreme closeups that you get at a typical concert, but after seeing the disfigured expressions I determined that this was done on purpose for sake of the crowd keeping their dinner down. Of course, all of this is subjective and you cannot knock the guy too much…just look at his track record with the ladies. He is either well endowed, or the stroke is the new black and I had better get crackin’ on my own facial distortion moves.  Either way, well done, sir.  Well done.

All of that being said, I must say that the dude is extremely talented and can put on one hell of a show.  While most of the tracks seemed to be from his most recent album, Battle Studies, there was a nice mixture of the new and old.  There was even a cover of a Tom Petty great, Free Fallin’.  I could go on and on about how much of a badass Mayer is on the guitar, but if you have seen him or listened to his music you already know this.  If not, definitely check him out.

One of the highlights of the Dallas show was a killer drum solo by Steve Jordan was not less than amazing.  The guy put down in a big way.  Another highlight was when the lights go down about half way through the show as they often do between songs.  When the lights come back up for the next song, Mayer is pimpin’ a Mav’s jersey, sweat bands and all.  Kinda cheesy, but it got a nice reaction from the crowd.

The show was great overall and reminded me why I like John Mayer.  There was one other portion of the show other than the carl mouth that made me roll my eyes.  Between songs, Mayer addressed the audience with a nice little tribute to the people in the nose bleed sections.  While doing this, he went on some self-indulgent rant about how the people who had bought tickets to this show had been using them to get through the bad times in their personal lives because they were fueled by the knowledge that they would soon get to see “Mayer”.  He even went on to spout off about how his new calling was to be the bright spot for two hours in our lives.  I may have taken it all wrong, but I just found it to be a little egocentric.  Just an observation and the rant took nothing away from the great show.

A side note about the goings on after the show.  The crazies were definitely out.  Two of our concert party were very nearly killed by a run-away vehicle just outside the arena.  Thank GOD for trees large enough to stop a vehicle!!  We also saw another vehicle tear out of the arena parking against the traffic policeman’s direction and speed the wrong way up a one-way street, but the boys in blue got his ass before he had the chance to hurt anyone.  This was same street that had just produced the crash that almost killed our friends.  To top it all off, we are on the highway heading home and we pass a car that was fully engulfed in flames!  Gotta love it!