Raeanne 'Lucky' Perry's account of her meeting with John Mayer and the rockin concert that followed. Hope that one day I too will have the chance to enjoy John live on stage..or elsewhere :) Thanks so much for the report and pics Rae!

Hello everyone,

Well I made it back from my journey to Montreal. Turned out to be a LONG day. Up at 7 a.m. and didn’t stop until I crashed in my bed at 1:32 a.m. So the following is a summary of that day (with the majority happening between 5:30 and 11:00 p.m.)

So day started off great, all set, didn’t forget anything! Got to work got a lot of work done in the morning, which was great, because all that needed to be done before I left and didn’t want a big to do list left at 2 p.m. just before I left. (Also turns out I wasn’t at ALL productive in the afternoon – I can’t imagine why?) So 3 o’clock rolled around and Sandra and I were rolling out of Ottawa – headed east on the 417. We arrived in Montreal just after 5, considering it was rush hour, we made great time and didn’t get stuck in any traffic. Found the Bell Centre without a problem… it was weird how it all came back from the UPEI trip a few years back. I’m happy to report that our good ole hotel is still standing on the corner of Guy and René-Levesque.

So we arrived at the Bell Centre around 5:30 at which time Sandra and I were checking each other out, reapplying makeup, and making sure everything was okay. We got everything together (I had to remember three things: tickets, picture to get autographed, and camera) and after almost forgetting the camera, we went to Le Cage aux Sports for some dinner (another nice memory of the UPEI trip). Needless to say that I didn’t have much of an appetite… but managed to get something into me, and Sandra, being the smallest person with the biggest appetite I know, finished up my dinner as not to let anything go to waste.

From the restaurant we went to wait to get in. I was told I had to pick up my backstage pass at the “will call.” Now, why do they have to call it “will call,” nobody knows what “will call” is why don’t they just call it “the box office” because THAT’S WHAT IT IS! Anyway found the box office, got my pass and proceed to go find where I had to go. Found it fine and there were already some others there waiting, so we chatted while waiting for Scotty Crowe to come and get us. Those of you who are John Mayer fans will know he’s the one who writes the Road Journals on JohnMayer.com, he’s a great friend of John’s. Scotty came and got us, counted us about 8 times to make sure nobody was sneaking in. So once we were backstage (or if you consider where the trucks unload, backstage) John came around the bend looking oh so delicious. Dressed in jeans, and a bright green hoodie (very close to the colour of my shirt) and in serious need of a haircut (a little shaggy, but very cute nevertheless) he walked up to us very nonchalant. He was so down to earth and seemed very interested in meeting us all. He was so gracious. I was the third or fourth person in line to meet him. Our short conversation went as follows:

John – “Hi there”
Rae – “Hi, how are you?”
John – “Great how are you?”
Rae – “Great thanks. I’m Raeanne.”
(Takes my picture to sign)
John – “Raeanne?”
Rae – “Yeah, I’ll just spell it – R-A-E-A-N-N-E”
John – “What show is this picture from?”
Rae – “Ottawa, last fall”
John – “Great!”
Rae – “Yeah it really was great!”
John – “Thanks!”
(Turns to pose for picture with me)
Rae – “Thanks so much for this”
John – “You’re welcome!”

So yeah that was about it. Another girl who talked a lot gave him a scratch ticket because of what he says in the commentary on the Any Given Thursday DVD (Becky, you are probably the only one who knows what I’m talking about). I snapped a few pictures of him and Scotty while he was signing and talking to other people. And that, my friends, was the extent of the “Meet and Greet” – short, but most definitely SWEET.

So I was off to find Sandra who I left somewhere… where though? Found her without too much trouble and we proceeded to find out seats. Fourth row, slightly off to the left. Turned out to be great though, perfect angle to see John’s face when he’s singing. Guster opened the show. A great band – I thoroughly enjoyed – check them out!

John came on stage at about 8:45 to a shrill of excitement from the crowd. I was quite calm, as I had already seen him. He started out the night with Clarity, his current single or what I like to call the “a woo hoo” song. Next song out right out of the block was none other than Why Georgia to which he worked a little “Portable” into (those of you who have the live CD, Any Given Thursday, it’s the intro that begins Why Georgia. Next was Something’s Missing that had a little something extra inserted into it (an old song I knew, but it escapes me now – he added little bits of other songs into his songs all night – if you want to know all the songs, let me know and I’ll find out). Next was none other than City Love. The line that normally goes “She keeps a toothbrush at my place… As if I had the extra space” turned into “She keeps a tampon at my place,” it got a few laughs. Next was No Such Thing, which always sounds great. After No Such Thing the band left and John was left playing Home Life acoustic – sounded incredible. Band returned and John said to the crowd the next song was Comfortable, which got a HUGE cheer (especially from me) only to turn around and play My Stupid Mouth instead. It was great though, no complaints. Next, John did an amazing jam, UNBELIEVABLE, he was totally showing off, playing all this crazy stuff, with one hand and backwards, etc, etc – it was a Stevie Ray Vaughn song and then he went straight into Come Back to Bed – very fitting, both very bluesy songs. Next was the very upbeat, Bigger Than My Body. He followed that up with a brand new song that will be on his next album, called Hummingbird – a great song that doesn’t disappoint. Next was the crowd favourite Your Body is a Wonderland. The night wrapped up with an incredible 83, which showcased John on drums at one point! The encore featured the beautiful song Daughters sung with just acoustic guitar, keys and drums (instead of the full band) he closed out with Back To You – Awesome.

And that was the night. At the very end, a girl threw her bra up on stage. He thanked us for our “support.” Another great line from the show included “Thanks for coming! You can burn CDs, but you can’t burn tickets.” He had some other great stories, including about how he loves us and not enough artists love their fans because they’re looking at themselves too much, he related it to going to the Grammys this year somehow, but I forget parts. He had another great one, where some members of the band played background music – really fun! He just told a story (just made it up) about JJ (the drummer) and how he found his first drum set in a junkyard…

Anyway, all in all the show was AWESOME. I have to say Becky (sorry) but this show was so much better than Ottawa. He seemed to be in a better mood or something… I don’t know… He kept throwing in other songs (a lot of Police stuff) into his songs. He was more talkative… There was just something about it.

Aanyway, I hoped you enjoyed this lengthy report (can you believe I left some stuff out)!