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John Mayer Live at the Chapel

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I’m standing in a queue of about 300 people waiting to enter Sydney’s Paddington Uniting Church for Kia Soul Live at the Chapel.

When John Mayer steps on stage, my ears start to hurt. Everyone – men, women, young hipsters and even those in their forties – is screaming. It’s infectious and I can’t help but join in. He’s wearing a black hooded tee that looks like a nightie when, later on in the show, it becomes untucked.



He opens with Heartbreak Warfare, a new track off 'Battle Studies', his latest album. It’s funky, more rock-influenced than anything off his 2006 album, 'Continuum'. John seems part chilled, part unsure of himself, as this is the first time – ever – he is attempting to play these songs outside of a studio or at home. At two points during the show, he stops the band and says, “I f%#*ed up!”. He apparently messed up the guitar intros, and later reassures us “It’s alright. I’ll get there.”

He admits he’d rather play these new songs and relish the chance of messing them up, than play something like his 1999 hit No Such Thing: “I could play that in my sleep.”

I loved Friends, Lovers Or Nothing, Half Of My Heart and Perfectly Lonely, which features the lyric, “I don’t belong to anyone and no-one belongs to me,” which perhaps reflects the loner status Mayer is embracing right now.



In terms of between-song banter, John comes across as a little shy. He talked to his audience a little, mid-way through came the confession: “I’m still the same jackass I’ve always been,” and professing his love for Twitter, which started out as a silly experiment, but which turned into something greater; a way to connect with his fans. “Thanks for embracing me. I know I don’t get to respond to all of you, but I want you to know I do read what you have to say.”

After his final song, John routinely threw one of his guitar picks out into the audience, which, as fate would have it, came right at me and fell at my feet. I picked it up and asked a nearby security guard to snap me in my moment of glory, “What? You want me to take a photo of you? By yourself?” Well, if being a loner’s good enough for John Mayer …



You can catch John Mayer at Kia Soul Live At The Chapel when it airs on Channel [V] on Saturday 2nd January from 5pm.


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