Posted: Monday 4th August 2008

Recently we reviewed the new John Mayer release, Where The Light Is. If you’ve read the review you’ll know we loved it so it’s with great pleasure that we can bring you a review for the accompanying live DVD. Where The Light Is is a music DVD release with a difference and is presented as ‘a film by Danny Clinch’ rather than just a live concert. The DVD captures the accompanying video to all of the songs featured on the CD release and runs for just short of 3 hours.

Featuring a 22-song setlist, Where The Light Is showcases John Mayer in three different guises; solo artist, trio member and singer in a band. Opening with an acoustic set Mayer entertains the crowd with his enviable guitar skills, smooth voice and undeniable charisma. Across the set, Mayer sings songs from his three studio albums (Room For Squares, Heavier Things and Continuum) alongside some carefully picked covers and original material written with the other two members of the John Mayer Trio.

Highlights from the set include the riff-tastic opener Neon, the blues-infused Who Did You Think I Was and the anthemic Waiting On The World To Change. Other selections worth skipping to include Why Georgia, In Your Atmosphere, Daughters and Gravity. For us the acoustic part of the set is the strongest, allowing Mayer to take all the glory with his acoustic guitar and crowd banter.

The concert footage is interspersed with candid conversations with Mayer about his career, his music and his passions. At the beginning of the DVD we discover how Mayer wants to develop his career whilst during the concert we see the bond he has formed as part of the John Mayer Trio and with the members of his backing band.

Extras on the disc include a multi-angle performance of Who Did You Think I Was and Slow Dancing On Mulholland Drive.

Where The Light Is is a testament to the incredible musicianship of John Mayer. He can turn his hand to a variety of musical genres and carry them off with relative ease, not something that many artists manage to achieve. Mayer is an artist in the true sense of the word and one of the best male artists in music today. We eagerly await his next solo album but until then we’re going to pick up our guitar and try to learn some of the impressive, but deeply complicated, riffs that Mayer wows the crowds with frequently.