John Mayer – Air Canada Centre – Toronto – April 3, 2017
Review and Photos by: Darren Eagles
Singer/songwriter, guitarist extraordinaire John Mayer hit Toronto this past Monday night for a SOLD OUT show at the Air Canada Centre. Mayer, touring to promote his newest album “The Search For Everything”, brought more than his customary trio of stellar musicians along for the ride on this tour. The show was divided into chapters with the full band out for a few, then an acoustic set with just Mayer and one other bandmember onstage. During that portion, Mayer had a surprise for the Toronto fans when he brought out Canada’s pop sensation Shawn Mendes for an acoustic mashup of Mendes’ smash hit “Mercy” and Mayer’s hit “In Your Atmosphere”. The stagehands had their work cut out for them all night. After each chapter, the stage was either cleared completely of unneeded gear and insturuments or reassembled with that same gear. All in a matter of minutes we went from full 8 piece band to a stripped down empty stage with nothing but Mayer.
The stage was a technical marvel as well. The HD rear video wall extended across the whole width of the stage. But the whole stage floor was made up of HD video screens as well. And in song two, Mayer let the crowd know that the stage was going to be visually special for both the people up high in the venue and the people down low. The stage floor spent time as a crystal clear blue swimming pool, an arabian rug design, various solid colours and of course close up live camera work to show Mayer’s skilled hands wrestling every note out of his Fender guitars.
Chapter 3 was the classic John Mayer Trio portion of the show. Onstage with his longtime partners, bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Steve Jordan, they tore into a 3 song set of blues/rock fire. JMT’s song “Who Did You Think I Was”, Robert Johnson’s blues classic “Crossroads” and a cover of Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Wait Until Tomorrow” had the room jumping.
The full band brought the show home including a two song encore. Then the stage, now bathed in pure white light from below and behind, was cleared and a small white upright piano was brought out where a solo Mayer ended the show with “You’re Gonna Live Forever In Me”. Musicianship at it’s finest was onstage, and the diverse crowd of fans were the lucky recipients of Mayer and Co. leaving it all on the stage for them.
Setlist:
Full Band:
Belief
Heartbreak Warfare
Moving On and Getting Over
I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)
Why Georgia
Acoustic:
Daughters
Neon
Mercy
(Shawn Mendes cover) (with Shawn Mendes)
In Your Atmosphere
(with Shawn Mendes)
John Mayer Trio:
Who Did You Think I Was
(John Mayer Trio song)
Crossroads
(Robert Johnson cover)
Wait Until Tomorrow
(The Jimi Hendrix Experience cover)
Full Band:
Waiting on the Day
Helpless
Love on the Weekend
Still Feel Like Your Man
Gravity
Encore:
Wheel
In Repair
Encore 2:
You’re Gonna Live Forever in Me