MANILA, Philippines - We could have met him in a sandbox. Or, at least, in the halls of our high schools.
I know. It’s hard to imagine that it was way back in 2001 when the first anthems of Room For Squares found their way to our airwaves. It has taken John Mayer all of a decade to finally play before the Filipino audience, in a much-anticipated event that took place last Friday, Oct. 1, at the Mall of Asia Concert Grounds.
Despite the heavy blanket of rain that descended upon Metro Manila in the late afternoon, thousands came undeterred. Traffic was hours-long from homes, schools and offices — but having already endured a five-month postponement since the original May concert date, we all knew that it was going to take much more to stop us. People flocked to their seats even as Aiza Seguerra, herself a professing John Mayer fan, opened with a few covers.
“Let’s get this over with,” said Aiza. “Para kumanta si John Mayer. Excited na rin kami.”
And in no time, John Mayer was up — quite unceremoniously in fact, and dressed in equally unceremonious jeans, a slightly oversized T-shirt and gloriously disheveled hair. He kicked things into groove with the Continuum hit Vultures to which the audience, wet and whetted, rocked in turn. The rain kicked in right on cue as well, and before he finished the first stanza, all we could see were umbrellas and more umbrellas.
“You not only waited for five months,” John Mayer said to the crowd, in a speaking voice that made us swoon just as much as his singing. “It also rained.”
We screamed and squealed and clapped. Colds were a small price to pay.
“You guys are great,” he said.
We screamed and squealed and clapped some more, men included — although many of them now deny this. (No judgments here though. We are, after all, a devoted people, be it to Manny Pacquiao, the Nazareno in Quiapo, or, in this case, John Mayer.)
Things gained momentum with the old favorite No Such Thing to which the eager crowd jumped and sang. Even a group of forty-somethings near me, who obviously did not know the lyrics, swayed along anyway. Next on the set list were Perfectly Lonely and a cover of Ain’t No Sunshine, to the delight of the older people in the audience.
Then came what was, in my opinion, the best song of the night, the sensual Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. Any decent John Mayer fan has seen him perform the song live on one YouTube channel or another — and he did not disappoint. He even swayed his hips as he played, showing off his dancing as much as his guitar-playing, which was highlighted generously in the next songs.
The more upbeat Waiting on the World to Change was followed by Stop This Train, to which we sang “stop this rain” — and for some reason the heavens heard our prayer. I suspect the gods wanted to hear Your Body Is a Wonderland without obstruction just as much as we did.
With the rain reduced to a mild drizzle, we were free to enjoy the next several songs: Who Says and Heartbreak Warfare from his latest album, the crowd-pleasing Gravity, followed by Do You Know Me and Why Georgia — between which John Mayer talked little and the audience yelled much, requesting a favorite song or two. Some had theirs granted with what John dubbed as the last song, Half of my Heart, spiced up with Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ which hit a high note before he and his band exited the stage.
Of course, devotees that we are, we could not let him go without an encore.
Appropriately, John’s goodbye kiss to the Philippines was the luminous Edge of Desire. Then he went, just as unceremoniously as he had come, and we were left wanting.
As we squeezed through the exits, all we could talk about were the songs we still wish we had heard: Love Song for No One, Friends, Lovers or Nothing, Back to You, Neon, My Stupid Mouth, Bigger than my Body… I could go on. With so many songs still left unsung, we all agree: John Mayer has more than enough reason to come back, and he better not take another 10 years before he does.