LIVE REVIEW + PHOTOS: John Mayer, JP Saxe in Boston, MA (03.13.23)
With over twenty years of touring under his belt. John Mayer is taking things back to his roots on his latest “SOLO” tour. While typically accompanied by a full backing band, Mayer set out across the country with himself, his guitar, and sold out arenas in every state. The intriguing part of his shows is that he won’t simply translate a full band song to an acoustic guitar, he will re-imagine it in every way by incorporating live looping, piano, and meshing multiple of his songs into one.
It’s a breath of fresh air not only for the audience but for John himself who has played some of these songs hundreds, if not thousands of times. It challenges artist burnout (to which John expressed his thoughts of wondering if his big days were over) and shows that even after two decades on the road, you can still have fun.
After opening with a crossover of Assassin and Shot in the Dark, John glanced around the arena and picked out a sign that said “Explore my wife’s wonderland”. While expressing concern about the implications of the sign, he proceeded to have the crowd imagine a family get together where the theoretical love triangle had to explain how they met. “Well we were at a John Mayer show, this is John Mayer, and he saw our sign in the crowd”.
The other part of John Mayer shows that make each night unique is the mystery of the setlist he chooses each night. Boston was lucky enough to hear “You’re Gonna Live Forever In Me”, “In Your Atmosphere”, and “Wheel” while the opening night of tour saw other deep cuts such as “In the Blood” and “Split Screen Sadness”. It truly means that no two sets will be the same and encourages you to catch multiple dates of the tour.
If you catch multiple dates of the tour, you may even see a different opener! Boston had the night open with a set from JP Saxe who had no issues engaging the crowd and we’re sure we’ll be seeing more of him soon. You can see who will be opening your show and get tickets for this full circle tour HERE.
John Mayer, JP Saxe at TD Garden in Boston, MA on March 13th:
