Where The Light Is – John Mayer Live In Los Angeles (Sony/BMG Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B     Sound: B+     Extras: C+     Concert: B

 

 

Especially today, when you get a singer who has a teen audience, which usually means they are prepackaged to be money machines, have little talent, appeal and anything in the way of looks even seems phony.  In the rare case the singer has talent, it can be a real challenge to break free of being typed to “teen idol” to at least some extent.  Maybe if it were still the mid-1980s, before the majors were pushing the phoniest junk imaginable, the overall “teen” period would be seen as a stage.  Danny Clinch’s Where The Light Is – John Mayer Live In Los Angeles (2008, recorded 12/8/07) shows the man emerging as artist and more than accolades can show, the rise of a formidable, talented, diverse artist and now, one of the most important artists in the entire music industry.

 

We see the man and his music in action throughout a surprisingly competent work (one of the best in a while) showing new, good music that we do not see or hear enough.  The concert is presented in three sections:

 

Acoustic

 

Neon

Stop The Rain

In Your Atmosphere

Daughter

Free Fallin’

 

Trio

 

Everyday I Have The Blues

Wait Until Tomorrow

Who Did You Think I Was

Come When I Call

Good Love Is On The Way

Out Of My Mind

Vultures

Bold As Love

 

Band

 

Waiting On The World To Change

Slow Dancing In A Burning Room

Why Georgia

The Heart Of Life

I Don’t Need No Doctor

Gravity

I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)

Belief

I’m Gonna Find Another Way

 

 

To say this shows his diversity is an understatement, though not every single song stuck with me, the overall program is the nicest surprise of any concert since they started to arrive in either HD format.  This could also be a turning point for Mayer, who is having that all too rare combination of strong critical and commercial success that used to be the norm before the labels started losing their structure.  There was a time music acts had their acts together and Mayer is part of an all-too-rare, small number of singer/songwriters we used to have all over the place all the time.  Hope he is the start of a new such movement.

 

 

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot in 35mm film, but Director of Photography Vance Burberry comes from mostly Music Video/Concert work and though I like the overall shoot he has decided to manipulate the image in ways that make it softer than I would have liked, but it is not a mindless, senseless, stupid color or detail gutting like we have seen to death.  There are some nice shots here and there, but the softness is still an issue.  Fortunately, the sound is better, with a high quality PCM 2.0 96/24 Stereo track and even better Dolby TrueHD 96/24 5.1 mix that has some compression here and there, but offers a good soundfield and certainly one better than the Dolby Digital 640 kbps 5.1 mix.  Obviously, the original recording master is of a high quality and I only wish we were getting an SA-CD of the concert too.

 

Extras includes a small illustrated booklet inside the Blu-ray case, while the actual disc includes picture-in-picture bonusview function, Slow Dancing On Mulholland Drive and BD Live backstage performance of Belief.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo