For years I’ve been a fan of the virtuoso musician, ever since I saw and heard the the superb live gig at Nokia Center in LA on DVD.
But that was not always the case.
The 41-year-old singer/songwriter began his career very much deep into pop music, releasing singles such as Your Body is a Wonderland, a tune that would play repeatedly in radios in Portugal, which made me hate him without ever giving him a proper chance. This only changed when years later I read a Rolling Stone magazine which featured Mayer alongside two of my favorite guitarists: Derek Trucks and John Frusciante.
Immediately I felt the need to investigate and determine why John Mayer, a "cheesy" pop artist (so I thought), was taking pictures with two great guitar masters.
Turns out Mayer was brought up in the blues scene, having admired and studied the art form developed by some of his personal heroes like BB King, Eric Clapton and - his personal favorite and one of my own as well - Stevie Ray Vaughn.
That’s when I decided to buy the DVD Where The Light Is and dig in to his music.
It blew my mind.
In that same LA gig, Mayer began with a set of acoustic tunes by himself, followed by a second set with his trio and was later on, joined by a bigger ensemble in a third and final set.
Between these sets, Mayer went from acoustic to electric and erupted in full blues mode, even playing a standard (Everyday I Have The Blues) and paying homage to the great Jimi Hendrix (Wait Until Tomorrow). In between he would play his own compositions, delivering epic solos, like the ones in Slow Dancing in a Burning Room and his absolute masterpiece Gravity.
With a gig like this in mind, you can imagine the bar was pretty high... But Mayer and his band didn’t disappoint.
The Grammy-winning musician showed up with two rhythmic guitars, a drummer, a percussionist, keys, bass and two backing vocals. The stage was set to a fabulous night which would put a tick on yet another bucket list item of mine.
Joined by my great friend Nada - to whom I’m eternally grateful for the ticket and company - we enjoyed a privileged view of the setting, well put together by the production designers, for a gig that went beyond the two hours filled with Mayer’s hits, included both of which I highlighted earlier.
My only question at the time was: how similar or how different will those songs be played out tonight, to the version I’m most familiar with from the LA gig?
The answer lies in between and that compromise was nothing but a dream (Gravity in particular had a killer intro delivered by singer / guitarist David Ryan Harris)
Can’t even dare to complain about some of the tracks I would have liked to hear, after such a display - spread across two long sets and an encore.
The truth is, whether you like Mayer or not, he's undeniably one of the best guitar players of our generation and belongs rightly so next to the likes of Trucks, Frusciante, Tom Morello and Gary Clark Jr (just to name a few).
I’ll leave here (and here) some of tonight’s epic moments just to prove that.
You're welcome.
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