Any Given Thursday | |
Type: | live |
Artist: | John Mayer |
Cover: | Mayer_Thursday.jpg |
Released: | February 11, 2003 February 25, 2003 |
Recorded: | September 12, 2002 |
Venue: | Oak Mountain Amphitheater (Birmingham, Alabama) |
Genre: | Pop rock, blues rock |
Length: | 102:25 |
Label: | Columbia, Aware, SMV Enterprises |
Producer: | John Alagia |
Prev Title: | Room for Squares |
Prev Year: | 2001 |
Next Title: | Heavier Things |
Next Year: | 2003 |
Any Given Thursday is a live CD/DVD by John Mayer, recorded in Birmingham, Alabama at the Oak Mountain Amphitheater on September 12, 2002, during the Room for Squares tour. The album quickly peaked at #17 on the Billboard 200 chart. It features mostly songs from Room for Squares, as well as several covers, including "Lenny" by Stevie Ray Vaughan and "Message in a Bottle" by The Police. Covers have since become a regular feature in Mayer's live shows.
Though mostly featuring songs from Room For Squares, the album also features "Man On The Side" (co-written with Cook and appeared on the Lo-Fi Master's Demo) and "Covered in Rain", neither of which have ever been released on a studio recording by John Mayer. "Covered in Rain", according to a documentary included in the DVD release, is "part two" of the song "City Love", which features the line, "covered in rain." The concert features songs previously not heard, such as "Something's Missing", which appeared on Heavier Things, his following album. It also features "Comfortable" from his original EP, Inside Wants Out. John Mayer also features his newly recorded song at the time " 3x5 ".
The DVD contained several features in addition to the concert: an audio commentary of the concert by Mayer and his friend Scotty Crowe (whose blog used to be hosted on Mayer's site), a photo gallery from the tour (not exclusively the concert shown in the video itself), and a documentary of an interview with Mayer entitled, "The Morning After", in which Mayer talks about his influences, some meanings of songs, and just general information about Mayer.
The CD/DVD received conservative consistent praise with critics torn between his pop-idol image, and (at the time) emerging guitar prowess. Erik Crawford (of AllMusic) asked "Is he the consummate guitar hero exemplified when he plays a cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'Lenny', or is he the teen idol that the pubescent girls shriek for after he plays 'Your Body Is a Wonderland'?" Billboard called the DVD "a great introduction to a rising star."[1] David Browne, with Entertainment Weekly, gave the album a B− saying, "one wishes Mayer were a more convincing rebel, but at least he doth protest a little."[2]
Commercially, Any Given Thursday entered the Billboard Albums Top 100 chart at number 34. It peaked at #23 for one week, and spent a total of 12 weeks on the chart. It quickly peaked at #17 on the Billboard 200 chart. In Australia, the DVD is certified 3× platinum by ARIA for sales of 45,000 copies.[3]
All songs written by John Mayer unless noted otherwise.