Another day, another John Mayer concert.

We got an exceptionally early start, at 5:30. My dad wanted to check out a jet ski so we had to be in Denver by 7. We ate breakfast and then headed over to the park.

We moseyed up to the ramp at 10:00, to find a line already formed! So, we found our spot at numbers 7 and 8 in line and readied ourselves for EIGHT HOURS of the hot Denver sun.

I brought entertainment—coloring books, Horatio Hornblower to read, Englebert to listen to, cards, etc. As much as I tried to do something that would pass the time, I had so much ADD that I couldn’t concentrate on anything.

Cars driving around in the park started noticing a line forming and it seemed like in five minutes ten different people drove up and asked us who was playing. So to remedy the annoyance of having to yell John Mayer every five seconds, I made a sign. Of course, right after I made said sign, no one came around. The only car that came by was the Courtesy Patrol…making sure we were all being nice.

After about an hour, more people started to get in line. Lo and behold, a huge group of the kind of girls I wrote about in the concert of ’04—“They were the kind of girls who yelled and screamed and were vulgar and all they wanted to do was have John Mayer’s babies”—showed up and immediately slipped into bikinis. Yay.

It was soooo hot up there and I started to get sunburned on my shoulders. REALLY sunburned. I made the mistake of wearing my (thick and dark) hair down which didn’t do so well under the sun. I had to find a hairtie to even be able to stand the heat because I felt like my head was on fire. (John Mayer is worth it.)

Finally at 5:00 they moved the line up to the gate up at the top of the pretty much vertical hill. People tried to be sneaky and sneak up but my dad was like, “Oh no you di’int!” and they backed down. He’s pretty scary.

But then this stray girl came up and parked herself near the front of the line. This ignited a frenzy. I think they were all rightfully pissed because we had just waited 8 hours and she tried to cut after just getting here. Nuh-uh! Where’s the Courtesy Patrol when you need them, eh? I have never seen this kind of rowdiness at a Mayer concert before. Usually we’re pretty laid back, but the atmosphere this time was all pokey and suspicious because we were defending our spots. I swear, they almost laid the smackdown on this woman. One lady grabbed her hand and then she threatened to call the police and blah blah blah. Fun!

While waiting I was watching carefully behind the gate to see if I could spot anyone, maybe Scotty or Dela. This one guy caught my eye and I couldn’t figure out for the life of me who it was, but I knew I had definitely seen him before. Don’t worry, I figured it out…later.

The line finally opened up and it was Craaaaaaaaaaaaaazy! I was number 3 (we had formed an alliance with 2 other groups of two people and figured one would be the bagger who gets the bag checked, and the other one takes nothing in and just hauls butt to get seats.) Even though we had people to block for us, some little jerk girl still slipped in front of me, but fear not, because all of my sports training was intended for THIS MOMENT! I sprinted like I’ve never sprinted before through a shortcut.

I told all my friends that if Jessica Simpson was there, I’d challenge her to a footrace. She wasn’t, but instead I challenged everyone else there to a footrace and won. That little jerk girl got to eat my dust.

If you go up the stairs, you come out at row 23, but I cut through concessions and ended up right at row one. Now it’s not only you against your line, but it’s you against the whole line at the other end of the park. They had better access and it appears that someone let them in a smidgen before us so it was already crazy. In this adrenaline filled haze, I managed to find seats 3rd row center. About 3 minutes later, my dad trailed in. He told me that after I ran through the shortcut they had a guard stand there and not let anyone else through. Heheeee! I’ve never run that fast in my life.

I sat down and looked down at my hands. They were shaking. To calm myself down I went to go get my commemorative tour shirt. When I got back, it seemed that two ladies just sat down in my spot and my dad was like, excuse me? Yeah, like you’re going to walk in a half an hour later and conveniently find two seats 3rd row center. Uh-huh. People are so stupid.

About a half an hour into waiting for the show to start, I glanced up toward the balconies on the side of the stage and I saw John. He came out and waved (more like flailed to the point where I was amazed he didn’t fall off the balcony) at us. Everyone who saw cheered but within a second he was gone and those who missed it were confused at the uproar. I knew at this moment that it was going to be a great night.

Probably ten minutes after that he actually came out on stage and was playing around with us a little bit. What a great guy…

Right on time, Rocco DeLuca and the Burden came out. I was so excited for them to play! They are a band that Kiefer Sutherland used to manage back in the day and are signed under his record label. I rented “I Trust You To Kill Me”, a documentary chronicling their tour of Europe (mostly just to see Kiefer’s infamous tree tackle) and was pleasantly surprised by the band. When John announced the tour and the support acts I was thrilled to note that they would be at Red Rocks. Their music is definitely interesting, and I wasn’t sure how they would fit in with John and Ben, but they did fantastically. Out of all the opening acts I’ve seen with John, they got the most attention and applause. Rocco really is a great showman and I recommend them to anyone. They brought down the house. Again… seeing artists live is what makes me love them. I also noticed Rocco was making all the faces that people make fun of John for…

[edit] Another thing that will show you how great they are—On my birthday I received a MySpace comment from Rocco Deluca and the Burden wishing me a happy birthday. How nice?!

Then Ben Folds came out. HELLO! He was the dude I knew but didn’t. I felt so stupid. Last year, Sheryl Crow was a blind woman and this year Ben Folds was just some photographer guy. Geez.

Someone had cleverly snuck in two beach balls and we bopped them around for a while before they were confiscated by big burly security guards. (Just like at graduation! Except by burly guards I mean Mr. Karg.)

I had obviously heard of Ben but not really any of his music. It was definitely an interesting mixture of lyricism and musicality. He was extremely entertaining, and wanting to make the pictures more interesting for us, he climbed up on his piano and pulled down his pants. Nice.

Then on the last song, he had the whole crowd sing a three-part harmony. I have to tell you, it was so incredible. When we all got going, we hit the perfect pitch and all the voices resonated against the rock walls and it was so eerie.

I got excited when he got off—this is what I had been waiting for for the past 92 days! Of course, it couldn’t have taken ANY longer for the roadies to change the set and for him to come out. It was the longest ½ hour of my life.

FINALLY, the lights went down and a tall and lanky (and newly shorn) silhouette emerged from stage left. The place erupted.

He opened the show with No Such Thing. This was perfect—I want to run through the halls of my high school/I want to scream at the top of my lungs… Every year at the end, the seniors do a senior run and essentially run through the halls of our high school and scream at the top of our lungs. I thought of this song as I ran and screamed. And here it was, opening the show. What a way of welcoming me.

I tried to take pictures but we had been informed that no flashing (tehee!) was allowed and my camera is from the Stone Age so nothing turned out. I got over it pretty quickly and decided this would be more of a 3x5 experience! (Look it up.)

Belief came next. I absolutely am in love with this song. As he came to the line “Belief is a beautiful armor that makes for the heaviest sword/like punching underwater you never can hit who you’re trying for” I thought of the time when I brought that quote in for English class and it confused everyone. John Mayer is such an amazing writer and if you’re not sharp enough, he will get you. He gives you things to think about and things to figure out. He’s awesome!

Good Love is on the Way… It’s right here, baby!

I Don’t Trust Myself was next. This song is incredible, and it was amazing how much this song sounded as if someone had just put on Continuum. I’ve heard this song evolve over the last 3 years and it has come along way. I love having this progression because again, it just reminded me of me.

Gravity next. I love this song live. There’s something so spiritual about the lights, the stars, the music, and “keep me where the light is.” This whole thing overwhelmed me and at this point in the concert, I got teary-eyed. The lights went up and I looked behind me to the beautiful view of the rocks and stars, and it was amazing. The whole crowd sang to this song, and the opening word sounded like a sonic boom.

Neoooooooooooooooooooooooooon. This song has the coolest guitar riff in it and of course you have to talk about sky blue getting dark enough to see the colors of the city lights at Red Rocks. Duh.

Waiting on the World to Change. I love this song because it describes two different generations. Obviously it is a whole different thing for John but for me I’m waiting on the world to change because that’s all I can do at this point. Plus it’s an awesome song. It was so loud as the crowd sang the background vocals. WAITING! During this song was the eye connection. He came over to right in front of me and looked out into the crowd right to me. I smiled and gave him a coy look, and he smiled back. LOVER!

Dreaming With a Broken Heart. This song is incredible and heartbreaking. It is so beautifully written (as are all of his songs) in a way that grabs your heart and pulls it through the melody and makes you feel every word.

Bigger Than My Body. His song selection was so awesome because there were so many songs that reminded me of specific points in my life which I’ve been thinking about a lot lately because I’m about to begin a new chapter in life. It’s amazing to me how many times I can remember that were important to me and all have a John Mayer song to go with them. Bigger Than My Body is especially close to my heart—back in my freshman year I was having a lot of physical trouble and mental anguish to go along with it, but every time I got down I put on this song, and it lifted me right back up and gave me a new attitude. Thanks, man!

Why Georgia. He got us all excited for this song by saying it was new. (Liar!) Again, it’s the soundtrack of my life here, people. Am I living it right?

Vultures. This song is so sweet. It’s such an awesome groove and it’s the Bigger Than My Body for a more bluesy crowd. Same attitude, same significance to me.

He then said he had one more song to do and I audibly yelled NO! I hate it when he says that. I Don’t Need No Doctor started up. This song was so great and I sang right along as usual but it was bittersweet because this was the last song of the set and I would start the emotional detox process soon.

The song ended but 3 chairs were immediately brought out. I knew it. Johnny loves us. He can’t stay away for long! Usually it takes about 10 minutes to get an encore out of him but this time it took about 3. He came back out with an acoustic guitar.

John proceeded to tell us that this had been one of the best nights he’s ever had. Me too, Johnny! I love having him say that when I’m there. He loves me! (Heh.)

3x5. This probably has to be one of my all-time favorite songs. It is so beautiful. Again I was reminded by the time I brought this song in to English class when our assignment was to bring in a song that evokes emotion. You can’t play Red Rocks without playing 3x5. My dad and I hiked Pikes Peak one year and I had this song on repeat the whole way up and it was absolutely perfect.

Split Screen Sadness. I was pleasantly surprised by this song because I did not expect it at all. Even though I didn’t expect it, it fit perfectly in with all the other songs. John is such a great showman.

I’m Gonna Find Another You. Oh, Johnny. How many times do I have to tell you that you never will? During this song I realized that it was almost over and my whole body stopped moving and all I could do was stand there, stare and try to hold onto every second. It’s funny how fast the time goes by. It’s so slow leading up to it but once you hit it, it’s a freaking avalanche. I hate it.

The second he left the stage, I became aware of all the pain I was in. Every muscle was engaged and every nerve ending was firing and now all that was left was the aftermath. I could barely stand up anymore. Every step down the long winding ramp hurt. As I climbed into Tony, I reached for my purse and raided my Aleve stash.

John Mayer is so worth it.

See you next year.