John Mayer's got the vibe and great hair.

We saw John Mayer last night and he was fantastic! Now, you've got to remember that I don't go to concerts very often, last one back in October 2005 when we saw Feist at the Danforth Music Hall. Actually, 2005 was a banner year for us as we also saw Duran Duran at the A.C.C. that April. But I found the vibe at John Mayer to be just about right for me at this point in my life.

I was and continue to be a huge Duran Duran fan and always kicked myself for never going to one of their concerts the first time around. Lucky for me Ian has always liked them too (remember my references to him being a metrosexual?) so when I was hugely pregnant with Giselle and we found out about the reunion tour, Ian wisely bought tickets. He was so forward-thinking (esp. for a guy!) -- when April came around Giselle was 4 months old and we were more than ready for a night out on our own. It was the first time I had left her for any major amount of time (I was nursing), and I had decided to drink that evening. So for our big night out (we had dinner at Jump in the T.O.) I brought my pump so I could "pump and dump". And with good reason. We had cocktails and wine and so much fun that I couldn't remember my firstborn's middle name. That probably explains why we went absolutely bonkers at the concert later. Screaming, singing, dancing, clapping away with all the other cougars in the audience. Those boys have aged reasonably well (especially Simon LeBon - I was more of a John Taylor groupie, but he's now officially skull-ish) and their repertoire of over 20 years of hits made it an awesome evening.

Feist was also great in concert; just more than a little different. We went with my younger brother and his wife; he's the same Chinese astrological sign as me, so that gives you an idea of how much younger. The crowd was even younger than them. Danforth Music Hall was the venue. The rickety, old cinema seats, musty/dank odour etc didn't hold the same charm for me that it may have 20 years ago. There were 2 opening acts, one a girl I can't remember, the second Jason Collett who was actually pretty good, but Feist herself didn't come on until closer to 10 PM. For me, on a weeknight, with 2 kids under the age of 5, all I could think about was how late the concert was going to go. So despite the fact that she was AMAZING, we had to leave before the end. You guessed it, I felt very OLD that night.

That brings me to our evening with Johnny. Ironically, the youngest of these three artists. But the evening hit all the right targets. Well, except for the first one, which had nothing to do with him. We took the subway downtown (something I haven't done in years; I marvelled at the automated voice announcing each upcoming stop which would have been so handy when I was crammed together with scores of others during my time at U of T). In our rush to get into the train that was pulling out, Ian managed to squeeze through the doors, but my superman couldn't keep them open for his Lois Lane. Embarassingly, he signalled that he'd meet me at the next station, next train.

We thought we'd swing it for dinner. We ended up in this bar/restaurant called the Bottom Line on Front Street. It was busy, but they did have seating on the couches, so it was quite the treat for us to eat and mess up someone else's living room. We were pleasantly surprised -- beer went down well, and the food was very good. We took our time as we figured John wouldn't come on for a while.

After this easygoing dinner, we walked down to the A.C.C, along with throngs of other concertgoers. For me, one of the most interesting things about a concert is people-watching, and making note of who enjoys the same music. Age-wise, this was the broadest spectrum of people I had ever seen at a concert. Gaggles of young girls, some on their own, many with their parents. Lots of couples, young, old and older. It looked like some grandparents were even there!

When Johnny hit the stage, screams were heard all around. But really, the crowd was quite tame and we were able to actually enjoy the music, from the pop of the first two albums, to the more mature, bluesy music currently featured on Continuum. With John Mayer, it's all about the music - his voice, his guitar, his fantastic backup band. It was a phenomenal evening. And it doesn't hurt that he's got the rockstar-like waves of hair to accent the occasional back-fling of his head.

So now Ian's given me the first right of refusal to the next set of concert tickets -Rush will be coming in September. Maybe it's time for me to go to a concert where I might actually feel on the YOUNG side again ?!