Reviews

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

BASTILLE AND MONDO COZMO – Live at the Air Canada Centre

Bastille made a triumphant return to Toronto on March 24th, packing the Air Canada Centre on the 1st date of extended 2016/2017 Wild World tour. Bastille are touring with an elaborate stage setup featuring a wedge of screens broadcasting dystopian news footage and visuals that perfectly suit their unique style of major key pop despair. It was honesty hard to hear the band take the stage to “Send Them Off!” over the screaming fans and to be honest – the scream fans never let up. Bastille’s 23 song setlist gave their fans everything they’d want, saving their biggest hit “Pompeii” for the closer (performed with opener Mondo Cozmo – More on them in a minute). The set featured close to an equal selection from Wild World and Blood with “The Anchor” winning a twitter vote and falling mid way through the set.

I honestly enjoyed Dan Smith’s (Bastille’s front man) commentary the most. Ex: “Here comes our most depressing song”, “Sorry, this next song is pretty depressing” – but he has a lot of fun with it. Bastille’s songs are rich in their visuals their dystopian lyrics evoke, especially with the current Brexit and Trump climate. But their songs, when pared with their extraordinary stage productions, a beautiful to see in hear. Bastille are touring through August 2017 – catch them while you can.

A quick pre-show google told us that Mondo Cozmo were fresh off a Kimmel performance and were only a few shows into a tour. We didn’t know what to expect but can tell you that we blown away by how amazing their were. Well crafted Springsteen meets Oasis rock and roll songs with a hint of pop. We saw this show Friday and “Hold On To Me” has been on repeat ever since. It’s rare that the opener overtakes the headliner but this was definitely the case with Mondo Cozmo. We couldn’t be more excited to see them at Bonnaroo 2017. If you want a great rock show check them out – even if you’re not a Bastille fan. Go to just see Mondo Cozmo and it’ll be $ well spent. You’ll be hearing more from this act for years to come.

We rate this show a 6 out of 6ix.