Scene and Heard

John Mayer recently stated after a backlash of controversial interviews to  ” just play my guitar”. He did just that Saturday evening bringing  his 2010-2011 World Tour to Freedom Hall. Playing to a crowd of 12,000 fans, Mayer dug deep into his catalogue of hit songs dusting off ,” No Such Thing”  that had been left off his set lists in recent years. The highlights of the show  were songs, “Waiting on the World to Change, and “Gravity”.  He also mixed in songs from other artists such as Bill Wither’s, ” Ain’t No Sunshine”, Journeys, ” Don’t Stop Believing” and finishing his encore set with “Crossroads”.

During the show,Mayer told his fans, “I used to perform just to make it in this business, now I perform for you”. Viewed by many as a writer of pop love songs, Mayer showed why Rolling Stone Magazine selected him as one of the upcoming guitar gods. Many of  his guitar solos lasted over four minutes, containing riffs similar to his hero, Stevie Ray Vaughn.

The music was mixed with Mayer’s interaction with his fans, reading twitter messages from fans at the show, leading a C-A-T-S and C-A-R-D-S cheers, and praising excellent opening act Michael Franti and Spearhead, ” I have to play well every night just to keep up with those guys.”

Mayer’s mouth and studio music may not appeal to the normal rock in roll crowd.  But seeing his live show will change that. The stage , featuring a large background screen , beautiful lighting, and an excellent sound system create a first class performance. He was backed up by his excellent band featuring his drummer, Steve Jordan and former guitarists for The Pretenders and  Paul McCartney’s touring bands, Robbie McIntosh.

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