John Mayer’s Sob Rock Tour brings Hope and Light to Spectrum Center

John Mayer’s Nostalgia, Concerts after Covid, and Grooves

This year is setting up to be the best yet for John Mayer (ex Columbia Records). So far, we have been treated to the news that he will be touring with not just Dead and Company but also a solo headlining tour, both of which are coming to a city close by, and we cannot say how ready we were for a concert of this caliber to dance at.

John Mayer - Sob Rock Tour , Charlotte, NC

A moment to experience the ‘new’ John. So let me back up in a less super fandom way. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter is known for his lyrical content, versatile yet simplistic approach that attaches to heartstrings and strums them in a way you didn’t know a heart could sound or a guitar.

Layered sounds, fancy gadgets, progressive transitions, intense guitar solos, and a 4 song set smack dab in the middle of the show are strictly acoustic.

He’d been heavily a paparazzi casualty of the late nineties (referenced later in the gig). He hit the road to promote his new album (circa July 21’) laced with soft rock, hippie funk, and another arsenal of hit ballads to add to his massive collection of masterpieces.

Sob Rock tour a place where you can get a little bit emo, and a little bit sexy.

The toe-tapping, hip-shaken, panty flying extravaganza kicked off with some retro-soul. The opening act, Yebba, transported us into a very 80s rock new wave flashback of Sade when I saw her tour in the early 90s.

She stayed very planted on stage – and if I had to give any feedback of any kind, it would be to engage more people; you have to talk to them and move away from your mic more than twice.

The pipes, though, artist Yebba is not missing those! I’d suggest running to any streaming site and downloading her music.

She will be a staple on my playlist.

The band and Mayer have been hit with the Covid bug twice this tour. One show sent Mayer to do an entirely acoustic set with Questlove stepping up on drums. I would have loved to have been a fly on that venue wall. With the tour going forward, he has 4 acoustic songs brought into the intimate realm you tend to lose in many arena tours. No matter a 300-person room or a 16,0000 person room, you feel he is there for you and some of your closest friends. Mastery of the art to tour at its finest.

Performance: We ebbed and flowed anxiously, waiting for him to descend upon the stage with some heavy-hitting 80s jam “Shot in the Dark” . I felt oddly like I should have broken out a super oversized shoulder padded blazer and misshapen non-matching neon glasses. It set the vibe divinely he burst onto the stage, then visibility as media was gone as we were shooting from the mix. It was a camera above your head – shoot and pray. Praying at a Mayer concert? This whole vibe was different.

When we first visited new music from Mayer back at the end of 2018 with his single “New Light,” he was touching base on being 40 in the friend zone and just walking us down a path of a more mature JM. Reflective on the past. He spoke of this a bit –

“Thank you for sticking it out with me and staying for this ride. I was an arrogant asshole in my 30s and did and said a lot of stuff. So again, thank you for sticking around.”

He’s deeper into this mindset. Dare I say we are getting the catalog of the American-40-something males’ passive-aggressive positivity ‘midlife crisis with an air of hope.’

And the future is fading, and the past is on hold.
But I know that I’m open, and I know that I’m free
And I’ll always let hope in wherever I’ll be.

Mayer’s church is a calamity of sex appeal in sultry silk-laden vocals, joy, hip-shaking, swaying in a moment lost to perpetual note changes, versions of original and cover songs. Every time you see him, there is a new note, a new transition, a new compilation of music you’ve heard thousands of times. To see the latest version in person and pick it up when he later points out what just transpired is inspiring.

He makes me want to learn a guitar, a way to compose a song, to share some of myself as he shares with all of us fans on every tour, every album, every beckoning performance.

Tonight in Charlotte, at Spectrum his vocals were spot on. We’re at that happy point of a tour that the artist hasn’t been spent yet, (go Charlotte). Mayer thanked the crowd for sticking with him through the craziness of Covid and hoping they still like him though the tickets were purchased so very long ago. He also spoke about the madness, scary, seclusion, and rebirth Covid hit artists and all people. He was very emphatic that it was a blessing to be back out on the road, finally seeing everyone again.

Some highlights to pattern this night were:

He jumped on stage to start the set with an extra padded blazer like I had envisioned, big hair blowing and looking fabulous. Opened the show with “Last Train Home,” with the crowd losing it when he stepped on stage. The whole band ran out the gates, working like a well-structured clock. Perfect timing, rhythm hitting every note, every wave with the precision of a diamond cut.

The stage production was massive screens that gave us close-ups of his hands strumming, band playing, and fantastic elements like an entire room donned in 80s glam neon strips. It would flow into nature scenes for older albums and out of world views for the romantic ballads. Some highlights to the setlist were – all the staples, but the acoustic part = chef kiss.

In Your Atmosphere (“Wherever I Go ‘Outro”)
Neon (“Every Little Thing She Does” Snippet)
Quiet (Snippet)
Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty cover)

^^Side note: JM has so infrequently played Quiet that he fumbled through a bit as he was remembering as he went along and dropped into “Free Falling” just a few lines into the song.

“Love how I wrote, in this one song two words back-to-back, which mean the same thing. The song wasn’t about a past relationship, and I liked how I purposely wrote the character to be such a dweeb. It was a very tongue in cheek thing.”

This tour: Sob Rock album was heaviest in the setlist, leaning on the new sound. He mentioned in the middle of the set to thank the fans attending for putting up; with so much new material and singing it loudly as the old.

Some fans stuck in the early ’00s will complain he’s not singing “Gravity’ 12 times in a row. Still, each song changed when a newer piece was coming; the roar was as loud as when he sang “Your Body is a Wonderland” The setlist was smothered in ballads and a song that I inadvertently really dug live, but when it came on the rotation of my playlist it never quite clicked. “Wild Blue,’ was my least favorite of the album. But hearing it performed, even more so, experiencing the addendums sprinkled into this almost new song before us had me swaying with my eyes closed in a moment I can’t truly verbalize. It was John singing, and the crowd evaporated when I closed my eyes. You find an unforgettable secular moment far and few between, even with your favorite artists.

The John Mayer experience live: is vastly like no other. He’s had decades to hone his skills but the overall flashy background or not, he doesn’t need it. He doesn’t even need a microphone for you to hear his boisterous vocals if required. His raspy, one-of-a-kind vocal and songwriting abilities and his verbose guitar noir are one for history books. He is an artist you should experience live at least once.

When looking over his career tours, I noticed I have attended every one he’s done minus his Dead and Company stints, and I’ve been to a couple of those, and I plan on many stops this summer.

Did you know:

Beyond Mayer’s grand slam ensemble of stellar writing, composition, directing, and out-of-this-world guitar mastery, he is also into television hosting and comedy. He is a watch aficionado (with a collection he values in the “tens of millions” of dollars), contributing to the watch site Hodinkee, and has been on the jury at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.

He supports various causes, one in particular that touches close to home for me is the Heart and Armor Foundation, established in March of 2019, which helps veterans of war.

Sobrock was elected by Guitar World’s readers as the best guitar album of 2021

He’s the golden boy of genre-jumping collaborations; if you throw on a youtube JM compilation, you will find he’s worked with more of the music industry than not. A few highlights; Ryan Adams, Frank Ocean, Jay Z, Kanye West, Taylor Swift, Paramore, Alicia Keys, Fall Out Boy, Wale, Chris Stapleton, Buddy Guy, Barbara Streisand, Chris Botti, Ed Sheeran, Eric Clapton, Shawn Mendes, Ty Dolla Sign, Herbie Hancock, Alessa Cara, Keith Urban, B.B King, Rob Thomas, Common, Demi Lovato, Ben Harper, Mac Miller, Travis Scott, Khalid, Tony Bennett, Billy Joel, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ringo Star, and many more!

That’s a Wrap:

Mayer, whose latest album SobRock was released on July 16th,2021, will be on the road throughout much of the summer and beyond. The Sob Rock Tour is going strong and will culminate on May 10th in Boston, Massachusetts. A much deserved month off the road he will then be with Dead and Company for a tour that starts June 11th in LA and finalizes on Sobrock’s one year anniversary July 16th in New Your.

Latest single : Last Train Home

Setlist

Edit this setlist | More John Mayer setlists

Best lyric heard:

“And I’ll always let hope in, wherever I’ll be.”

****5/5

See full gallery of the night here.

You can stream JM on iTunes, Spotify, or any major music platform.

If you happened to pick up tickets and grab any shots of the shows, feel free to tag us on social media as @Shutter16Magazine and throw in #TwitFromThePit for the world to see!

Catch the Sob Rock Tour:

APR 24, 2022 AMERICAN AIRLINES CENTER DALLAS, TX WITH YEBBA TICKETS
APR 28, 2022 UNITED CENTER CHICAGO, IL WITH YEBBA TICKETS
APR 29, 2022 UNITED CENTER CHICAGO, IL WITH YEBBA TICKETS
MAY 3, 2022 SCOTIABANK ARENA TORONTO, ON WITH ALEXANDER 23 TICKETS
MAY 5, 2022 PPG PAINTS ARENA PITTSBURGH, PA WITH ALEXANDER 23 TICKETS
MAY 7, 2022 UBS ARENA BELMONT PARK, NY WITH ALEXANDER 23 TICKETS
MAY 9, 2022 TD GARDEN BOSTON, MA WITH ALEXANDER 23 TICKETS
MAY 10, 2022 TD GARDEN BOSTON, MA WITH ALEXANDER 23 TICKETS