Plot: What’s it about?
John Mayer doesn’t need to prove anything to me at all, this Blu-ray has convinced me that he is a great singer (sounding at times like Jack Bruce, Clapton, and several others too) – he has a great vocal range, slipping into falsetto at times, which adds a different aspect to some of the songs; a great acoustic fingerpicking guitarist; a tremendous electric guitar player (blues and more) and a great songwriter too. He gives us blues (his own and others); Hendrix (“Axis: Bold As Love” and “Wait ’till Tomorrow”); arrangements of other folks songs (Ray Charles’ “Don’t Need No Doctor” has my vote to appear in a Big G setlist soon, I hope) and of course his own songs, mainly from his last release “Continuum”.
We see a great array of guitars on the DVD, some nice Martins and a variety of good looking (and sounding) Strats, a Guild and a Gibson jazz box (175 maybe) as well as some behind the scenes stuff, where Mayer comes across as a really nice guy. Below are the songs included on this Blu-ray.
1. Neon
2. Stop This Train
3. L.A. Song
4. Daughters
5. Free Fallin’
6. Everyday I Have The Blues
7. Wait Until Tomorrow
8. Who Did You Think I Was
9. Come When I Call
10. Good Love Is On The Way
11. Out Of My Mind
12. Vultures
13. Bold As Love
14. Waiting On The World To Change
15. Slow Dancing In A Burning Room
16. Why Georgia
17. The Heart Of Life
18. I Don’t Need No Doctor
19. Gravity
20. I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)
21. Belief
22. I’m Gonna Find Another You
Video: How does it look?
While virtually every other high definition concert of recent memory has been shot natively on HD video, Where the Light Is is a concert film in the truest sense. The performance was captured on 35mm film, presented on Blu-ray at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and at the cinematic frame rate of 24 fps. Needless to say, Where the Light Is doesn’t look like any other concert I’ve seen in high-def. Its photography is rather stylized, preferring a subdued palette and flatter contrast, shying away from the vivid hues and almost tactile dimensionality so often on display in other concert discs. The VC-1 encoded image is crisp and silky smooth, but fine detail rarely leaps off the screen when the camera eases back, and black levels are dense enough that some information is lost in the shadows. While this admittedly means that Where the Light Is isn’t the sort of home theater showcase that high-def concerts so often are, it does all appear to be a deliberate stylistic choice by director Danny Clinch. The photography is striking and lends the performance a sort of intimacy that other HD concerts often lack, and I appreciate that Clinch opted to lean away from the usual conventions for his film.
Audio: How does it sound?
There are two audio options: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and PCM 2.0, both in English and both 96kHz/24 bit. It’s a coin toss, as far as I’m concerned, but I preferred Mayer’s voice on the PCM because it sounded a little fuller. There were a few weird moments on the PCM track, though, as when Mayer sideman David Ryan Harris is shown on-camera playing his guitar solo and we get the sound coming out of the left main speaker. There are a few more disjointed moments like that because of the channeling. The 5.1 TrueHD channeled the instruments more naturally, but Mayer’s voice was lightly . . . “muffled” is too strong of a word, but I might call “restrained.” I preferred the PCM, and those head-snapping moments of strange channeling were too few to really bother me.
Supplements: What are the extras?
The standard set of extras on ‘Where the Light Is’ proves disappointing — the lack of a dedicated documentary or commentary is surprising. The quality of all the bonus footage is very strong, however, with excellent 1080/AVC MPEG-4 video offered. “Slow Dancing on Mulholland Drive” is just an unused interstitial from the show. Mayer talks briefly about his method, then performs a short little tune. Set select is simply a chapter selection menu, allowing you to play the three acts of the show individually, or go straight to a specific tune. There’s a Collectible Booklet – Rounding it out is a 12-page booklet, with a some on-stage and behind-the-scenes photos in both color and black & white. Note that Sony has opted not to use a standard Blu-ray keepcase for ‘Where the Light Is,’ instead going with a sort of slim version of Warner’s Digi-Book packaging — it’s thin enough that I suspect some may find it less-than-sturdy.
