At a "Secret" Show, John Mayer Says He's Been "Doing a Lot of Thinking"

Late Tuesday evening, The Daily Transom headed to the Lower East Side, where John Mayer performed a "secret" midnight show at Mercury Lounge. Mr. Mayer was extremely loquacious between songs, but the notorious oversharer remained mum about Perez Hilton's recent allegations about him on Howard Stern's radio show. Mr. Mayer did, however, remark to the small audience—which included comedians Sherrod Small and James Smith—that "the sweat stains on my shirt predict McCain will win." The "subversive hipster crowd" (as Mr. Mayer dubbed the audience) booed, and he smirked and continued, "He's the juice box fortune heir, right? This is the worst segue into 'Waiting on the World to Change' ever."

In between material both old and new —and a quick few bars of something that resembled Zeppelin—Mr. Mayer mused on everything from recently turning 30 to the inability of people to connect in the digital age. "I know shit will end up on YouTube, but I gotta work it out somehow. That's the problem with people today. Everyone sits in dark rooms and sends each other links, but it's a connectedness without really being connected."

The crowd, undaunted by Mr. Mayer's philosophizing, shouted jibes like "Nice mustache!" ("Oh, do I have a mustache?" he quipped back) and the singer/songwriter rambled on. "I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, which is different from the wondering you do when you're drunk and in a club." Here he paused to demonstrate his club dancing abilities. "When you're drunk, you think you're thinking, but really you're just making these intense plans about how you can't wait to get home and organize your Apple TV and songs."

He also paused to check his BlackBerry—nice product placement!—and said, "Who am I kidding? No one calls me anymore. Oh wait, here's a text message from 'device is powering down.'"

After the show, Mr. Mayer, Mr. Small, and Mr. Smith, who is from Australia, attempted to escape to another bar. But women kept walking up to Mr. Mayer, handing him notes, and walking away.