“Carry Me Away,” his brand-new single, continued that lighter vein of love songs and while it only arrived a week or so ago fans embraced it like an old friend. “Waiting On The World To Change,” one of Mayer’s poppier hits, was a highlight early in the set, its lighter tone matched to the long lyrical solos he took as it developed. Put all that together and it makes Mayer’s job that much easier, and so as the show unfolded it did so with a casual, unfussy manner, moving from a heavy blues to a jazzy interlude, an acoustic guitar folky number into almost country-rock once or twice. The rhythm section of bassist Pino Palladino, who’s played with the Who for decades and also in Mayer’s trio, and drummer Aaron Sterling was rock-solid all night long, Sterling flailing away behind the kit, Palladino ever the stoic bassman.
Harris also sings, as he did for a snippet of Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones” that led into “Slow Dancing In A Burning Room,” and backing vocalists Carlos Rickets and Tiffany Palmer showed up all night long but perhaps nowhere better than on the section of Otis Redding’s “Dreams To Remember” that led into Mayer’s own “Gravity.”
Guitarist David Ryan Harris has been with Mayer for years, and he and guitarist Isaiah Sharkey, the latter who broke out in Chicago’s blues and jazz clubs when he was barely out of middle school, often joined Mayer for solos as they did on the heavy folk stomp of “In The Blood,” a highlight early in the set. Mayer is the boss, but he’s a generous bandleader, and all eight musicians and singers got a workout as it unfolded.Īctually, let’s go ahead and single out a few of them right here with highlights from across the show. The night kicked off with “Belief,” one of six numbers pulled from “Continuum,” the album that probably provides most of his best-known songs, and its big groove and slinky riffs set the tone for the night.