Bands Seen

  John Mayer

  J.P. Saxe

Date:

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Venue:

Little Ceasars Arena

Location:

Detroit, Michigan, United States

Notes:

Solo concert tour. This is from an article written about the show:

By GARY GRAFF | For MediaNews Group
PUBLISHED in the Oakland Press: March 23, 2023 at 10:08 a.m. | UPDATED: March 24, 2023 at 9:41 a.m.
"John Mayer fans are used to seeing him plugged in and making noise, either in front of his own band or as part of the Grateful Dead spinoff Dead & Company.
So his solo acoustic performance on Wednesday, March 22 at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena was different altogether — but, fortunately, just as compelling.
The two-hour and 10-minute show offered a travelogue through the 45-year-old musician’s nearly 24-year recording career and a chance to, as Mayer put it, “show my body of work as all-meaningful…letting me play what I want to play no matter how (the songs) did commercially.” The 23-song setlist did indeed make a wide troll through Mayer’s catalog, sampling from seven albums and pulling out a few hits (“No Such thing,” “Hal of My Heart,” “Your Body is a Wonderland”) but mostly digging deep for material that, in its stripped-down arrangement, displayed Mayer’s triple-threat acumen as a singer, songwriter and virtuosic, nimble-fingered guitarist.
There was a looseness to the night, too, including Mayer’s amiable and self-referential chatter as he performed on three separate areas of the stage — one seated, one standing and one at a baby grand, from which he performed “New Light,” “You’re Gonna Live Forever in Me” and “Changing,” which he closed with a looped “duel” between piano and electric guitar. Mayer was relaxed enough to call an audible, accepting a fan’s shouted request for “Wild Blue” from his 2021 album “Sob Rock,” which he sequed into a Detroit-referencing version of “Who Says.”
“Nice call!” Mayer said afterwards, saluting the fan. “It worked. Thank you, man.”
Mayer also tossed in a couple of covers he’s recorded in the past — Beyonce’s “XO” and a show-closing version of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin'” — and fused some others into his own songs: a bit of Stephen Stills’ “Love the One You’re With” at the end of “Queen of California;” a line from Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” during “Shot in the Dark;” the first verse of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” to introduce “The Age of Worry;” and a snippet of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound” during “Stop This Train.” And he particularly entranced the crowd of about 13,000 during a three-song set (“If I Ever Get Around to Living,” “Dreaming With a Broken heart” and “Edge of Desire”) performed on a double-neck acoustic guitar, its 12-string top half providing a sympathetic, sonic fullness in the Spartan setting.
And during the encore Mayer led the audience in singing “Happy Birthday” to opener J.P. Saxe, who was turning 30 the next day and stood, beaming, on the side of the stage.
Mayer makes a habit of changing things up and throwing curve balls at his audience, so who knows when he’ll revisit the solo acoustic format again. But here’s hoping he does, at whatever point, because it’s a format that serves Mayer’s songs well and offers a greater insight into his creativity."

Seen By:

Mia Hernandez
Felter63
Emily Mc Manaman