Pulling off a one-person show on any size stage is no small feat. The bigger the stage gets, the bigger that feat becomes. How big of a feat, then, should we consider John Mayer’s solo tour, which sold out arenas across America, like, say, the 18,000-seat Kia Forum in Inglewood, California?
The seven-time Grammy winner has always had a charm and confidence on stage, and has never shied away from sharing his inner monologue and having his own repartee with the audience. But here, during the final stop of his latest tour at the Forum, he commanded the large and legendary room with an ease that belied his usual neuroses in an improv show for the ages.
Throughout the two-hour finale, John took turns cracking jokes and pouring his heart out while playing (and doing) “whatever comes to mind.” He sprinkled Def Leppard into a winding medley of “Love on the Weekend” and “Split Screen Sadness”, blended a Joni Mitchell-style version of “Last Train Home” into “Something Like Olivia”, teased Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound” at the end of “Stop This Train”, played “3 by 5” by audience request, and shouted out Jon Bon Jovi (who, apparently, was in the building) with a riff from “Dead or Alive” en route to “If I Ever Get Around to Living” and “No Such Thing”.
Mayer spent most of the show plucking away at his acoustic guitar, with occasional sojourns onto his resonator guitar and piano. At one point, after a run on the keys that included “New Light”, “You’re Gonna Live Forever In Me”, “I Will Be Found”, and “Changing”, he channeled his inner James Blake by recording a piano loop over which he then played a ripping guitar solo.
Along the way, he sprinkled in silly quips, heartfelt messages to his fans, and video clips that hearkened back to his early days as a burgeoning musical talent with a signature smart aleck charisma. For all the throwbacks to classics, though, it was the freshness of the affair that made it so special. Sure, John’s new, unreleased track, “Drifting”, was a nice touch, though there was certainly something else about John’s attitude and approach that proved pervasive.
“This is the truest tour I have ever played in my life,” he told the audience, during one of many heart-to-heart moments. “This tour has changed everything for me.”
John also confessed that he had been considering what he would do next. Retirement, he claimed, wasn’t in the offing, though mentioning it at all seemed to suggest that maybe, just maybe, stepping away for a time (or even for good) had been on his mind at some point.
Now, instead, John Mayer seems refreshed, renewed, and ready for the next phase of his career and his life. This may be his greatest feat of all. At the age of 45, after 25 years in the music business, with eight albums and multiple reinventions—from semi-reluctant pop star to precocious blues phenom, from country twanger to Grateful Dead acolyte (including a drop of “Friend of the Devil” at the Forum)—he still seems to have so much more to give.
There’s already plenty more to come on his calendar, as well. After wrapping up his prodigious run with Dead & Company this summer, John will resume the domestic leg of his solo acoustic tour in late September before continuing on to Europe in spring of 2024, with yet another stop at the Forum along the way.
Click below to view fan-shot videos and photo galleries of John Mayer and support act Alec Benjamin courtesy of photographer Matthew Rea.
John Mayer – “Love on the Weekend” (With “Split Screen Sadness” Snippet & “Hysteria” By Def Leppard Snippet) – 4/14/23
[Video: Obvslyme09]
Setlist: John Mayer | Kia Forum | Inglewood, CA | 4/14/23
Acoustic: Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, Heartbreak Warfare, Love on the Weekend (with ‘Split Screen Sadness’ snippet and ‘Hysteria’ by Def Leppard snippet), XO, January 16, 2002: “Room for Squares” Interview, Neon, On the Way Home (Snippet/request) > Who Says, Last Train Home, Something Like Olivia, Driftin’, In Your Atmosphere (With ‘Wherever I Go’ outro)
Piano: New Light (First verse & chorus only) > You’re Gonna Live Forever in Me, I Will Be Found (Lost at Sea) > Changing, Acoustic, “Continuum” Interview, Stop This Train (With ‘Homeward Bound’ by Simon & Garfunkel outro), The Age of Worry, Covered in Rain > Your Body Is a Wonderland, 3×5, Walt Grace’s Submarine Test, January 1967
Double-Neck Acoustic: Friend of the Devil (Grateful Dead), If I Ever Get Around to Living (With ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ by Bon Jovi intro), Edge of Desire
Encore: Born and Raised, Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty)
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