Fan on the Side: 45 fan-taped John Mayer shows (2000 to 2023), cleaned up and free to stream
Hey everyone!
This project has been in my head for a decade, and I finally got it built: Fan on the Side, https://fanontheside.com
It's twenty years of live John Mayer audience tapes, made by fans and cleaned up so you can just hit play. You don't download anything or unzip a pile of FLACs. Just pick a show and listen. These are from my personal collection, mostly picked up over the years on the fan boards, L-83, and straight from the tapers.
--- ETA: I have ~200 more shows to upload, they'll appear gradually over the next couple weeks---
What I did to the tapes
I built a remastering chain and ran every show through it the same way:
- Cut the low rumble you can't really hear but that eats up headroom. That turned out to be the main reason a lot of tapes sound thin.
- Pulled out the crowd, then blended about 30% of it back in so it still feels like you're in the room.
- Built one EQ curve per show to even out the taper's mic and recorder. It's applied gently, and I never boost the extreme lows or highs.
- Added a touch of stereo width, then set the volume so every show plays at about the same level.
Nothing is added and nothing is cut. Every track plays exactly as the taper cut it, intros and banter included. I listen to every show myself before it goes up, and if you'd rather hear the raw tape, there's a switch that flips to the original at the same spot in the song. The About page has the whole chain with the actual settings, if you're into that.
Other stuff
- Tapers get the credit. Their name is in the player while their show plays, their notes are on the show page, and each one has a page of their own.
- Ways to dig in: an eras timeline, "song journeys" where you can hear a song change over the years, and a library of every show.
- No accounts, no ads, no tracking. You can rate the night and the tape, and that's it.
Right now there are 45 shows from 2000 to 2023 (168 songs, 15 tapers), with more coming.
**If you taped any of these**, every show page has a "This is my tape" button where you can claim it, fix something or add to it. If you'd rather a show come down, email tapers@fanontheside.com and it's done. 15 shows are still marked "taper unknown," so if you know who recorded one, please tell me!
Hope y'all enjoy it.