Friday, after finding out we hadn’t won any John Mayer contests that we had entered, Christine and I decided to see if Ticketmaster released any more tickets for the show that night. Everything was either way way high or in the way way back (not that the arena is that large, but I am spoiled when it comes to Mayer)
Our friend Amber told us about a ticketing site – vividseats.com and we saw they had some 6 rows up on the side section for about $20 over face. We decided to buy them and a few minutes after placing the order I got a call from the website. Since it was a last minute purchase it set off “red flags” so I had to verify all my info. Then I had to be on hold for 15 minutes (while I was at work, mind you) only to hear that the 6th row seats had already been sold, but they had something in row 11 on the opposite side of the stage for the same price. I decided we would get those instead and within 45 minutes or so the tickets were emailed to me.
We made our way to the casino and of course had a hard time finding parking. A friday night at the casino with a sold out show on top of it… Got inside and saw doors were already open so we decided to go in and just grab food at the concessions.
The show started right at 7:30 with Michael Franti & Spearhead. There weren’t many people at their seats yet, but most of those who were there were up and dancing. I enjoyed their set, even though it was nearly an hour (one of the longest openers I think I’ve ever seen) and it got to the point where I thought every song he started was the one from the radio (Say Hey) but it wasn’t… A lot of the songs just had similar sounds.
There was this one old dude that was cracking Christine and I up. He was on the floor and made his way up from 3rd or 4th row. Next thing we knew he was front row and center rocking out. And by the end of the set – he was ON STAGE. It was crazy.
Michael also came out in the crowd for a couple of songs which was pretty cool, went up to sing with people in the side sections and stuff. After his set he was right in front of our section doing a quick M&G.;
Then the crew set up a mosquito net around the stage. There were groans all around because our section thought that the net would be our “possible obstruction” of our seats. Turns out it was just set up to be a screen playing the intro to the show, which was really cool.
John started the set with Heartbreak Warfare, his latest single. He has said in the past he doesn’t like playing his singles later in the set because then if people came for just that song, they can leave early. (Although he didn’t sing his first single off the album, “Who Says”, until the encore)
Highlights included Vultures (one of my faves) and the fact that he sang Assassin almost completely on our side of the stage. Also, since CT is is home state he likes to randomly throw out city names to get us to scream and usually he NEVER says mine – but he said mine first which caught me completely off guard but I screamed really loud. (Although I must say my screams had nothing on the women behind us, who at first we were teasing were us in 10 years, but then later realized were us 10 years ago since every time John came near our side of the stage they’d scream his name and that they loved him. He can’t hear you with his monitors in, ladies!)
I feel like his set was relatively short, but maybe it had just been that I hadn’t seen him in so long and I really could have stayed to watch him play all night.
Under the cut set list and some photos!
Heartbreak Warfare
Crossroads
Vultures
Bigger Than My Body (Homeward Bound tease)
Perfectly Lonely
Assassin (Message in a Bottle tease)
Wait Til Tomorrow
Who Did You Think I Was
Waiting on the World to Change
Half of My Heart
Why Georgia
Say
Gravity
Who Says
Friends, Lovers or Nothing
Katie 
