On Sunday night a man walked into Gosman Sports Center dressed in a black button-down shirt with a black tie. To a stranger, he could've been mistaken as a hit man (Oe la John Cusack from Grosse Pointe Blank). Coincidentally, to those who knew who he was, this man was also a hit man. John Mayer took over Brandeis Sunday night like a cool assassin, playing hit after hit to a packed house. This concert was not one for the faint of heart, especially for the females in the audience, as the 26-year-old originally from Bridgeport, Conn. seduced the crowd with his guitar and his voice. What resulted was a very memorable night of jokes, dancing, and some amazing music.

The most disappointing part of the night may have been the opening. Rumored for weeks to be anyone from Guster to Maroon 5, the opening act ended up being David Ryan Harris, who "ironically" doubled as one of John Mayer's guitarists. Although his sound was eerily similar to Mayer's, the unrecognizable songs and the disappointment of a crowd expecting a bigger act left Harris without much of a responsive audience.

After his set, the night got started. Around 4,500 people packed into the athletic center which was masterfully transformed into a concert venue. Buses arrived from Bentley, cars arrived from the neighboring towns and colleges, and droves of people walked and took trains to join the community in seeing this huge act. There was even a smattering of townies, as many Waltham residents, some way beyond college-age, intermixed with the young crowd.

Then the stage went dark. When the lights came back on again, John Mayer was standing in front of the microphone with the rest of his band behind him as they jumped right into "Bigger Than My Body" off his latest hit album, Heavier Things. The next song regressed back to his first album, Room for Squares, as Mayer rocked on with "No Such Thing." These two songs really got the crowd energized as everyone was jumping, dancing and singing along to these two huge hits.

Mayer then broke it down for two hits from his latest album as he played "Something's Missing" and "Clarity." Although his songs were able to stand on their own, Mayer included some extra entertainment as he added some comedy and dialogue to the performance.

After one girl yelled out "I want to have your babies," Mayer explained how girls say that all the time but never mean it because "it involves sex." Some of his humor, though, was lost on the crowd especially when he thanked them for buying a ticket tonight "because you can't go out and buy a ticket-R" (referring to the burning of his CD's onto CD-R's).

He even picked up a "sex bracelet" thrown onto the stage by an adoring fan and wore it for the rest of the night.
Mayer's attempt as covers were weak, like when he started a very bland version of the chorus to Maroon 5's "This Love," Cutting the chorus short and transitioning into one of his own tracks, he showed reluctance in exploiting his repertoire of covers. There were instances during his songs where other artists were introduced-during "Your Body Is a Wonderland" Bill Wither's "Use Me" and Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" were covered-but he never really got into any one else's music but his own.

The lack of covers was definitely all right, as he managed to create enough variety with his original music all night long. Going from the blues-heavy -something that definitely appeals to his roots- "Come Back To Bed" Mayer was able to switch effortlessly to the acoustic, Grammy-winning hit "Your Body is a Wonderland." After Mayer added some of Eric Clapton's "Layla" to the end of "Only Heart," he closed out the set with "Why Georgia" to the great pleasure of his fan-base.

But the Catholic-school-boy-turned-teen-heartthrob was not done just yet. After feigning a finish, Mayer came out to do an encore to the great enjoyment of the crowd. Usually here the artist attempts to fulfill the audience's unrequited desire for a song still unheard. But Mayer decided to play some other songs-ones that he admitted he very rarely ever plays in concert-leaving fans waiting for such songs as "Neon," "Love Song for No One" and "Love Soon."

But "LA Song" started out the encore instead which left a lot of the audience wondering what he still had up his sleeve. The last song was an explosive version of "83" that compelled all the people still on their feet dancing all around.

The night started out with a disappointment, but ended on such a good note that no one should have gone home disappointed. For one night, John Mayer showed Brandeis students how to have a great time. Brandeis Student Events went out and got a huge act, and the fan response, as well as the performance by John Mayer definitely showed that they made the right move-John Mayer truly rocked Brandeis.