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Taken from Winnipeg Free Press (April 8, 2010)
REVIEW: John Mayer all about the tunes
by Rob Williams
 WINNIPEG — John Mayer let the music do the talking in Winnipeg Wednesday.
The blues-loving adult contemporary star has made headlines more for what he says than his tunes recently, but at the MTS Centre last night it was all about the tunes and not any quotes that are going to get him in trouble.
He’s a part time stand-up comic too, but didn’t offer up any laughs either. Maybe he didn’t know the Winnipeg Comedy Festival was on.
So it was all about the music then, modern, easy going pop-rock that might make its way onto future Time Life AM Gold sets people will buy on late night television.
The 32-year-old, his five-piece band and two backup vocalists kicked off the 105-minute set with his latest single, the soulful Heartbreak Warfare, in front of crowd of 6,500 fans, including many couples. It seems a Mayer concert is a good date night. There were plenty of groups of females out together too. Mayer has a reputation as a bit of a lady’s man, but he’s considered a hunk, as his legions of females admirers would surley vouch for, and did with their screams when his image appeared larger than life on the video screen behind the band.
His albums are smooth and lightweight affairs, but live the songs get a bit of extra heft from his formidable guitar work. Say what you will about his material, Mayer is a skilled guitarist and showed off his talents repeatedly throughout the night during solo after solo and some extended jams on numerous instruments routed through a massive pedal board positioned in front of a teleprompter which scrolled his lyrics for every song.
He showed off his six-string prowess early, jamming with one of his guitarists on the funky Vultures and getting as heavy as he gets on Assassin, which featured atmospheric purple lighting and computer images on the video screen.
"Are you having a good time so far? Well let’s make it groovier," he said prior to a drum workout by Steve Jordan, which led into an extended version of his Grammy Award –winning single, Waiting on the World to Change.
He pulled out an acoustic and slowed things down further for Stop This Train, Clarity and Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, enchanting the audience. Things picked up a bit for Bigger Than My Body, but shifted down again for crowd favourite Why Georgia, which ended the main 90-minute set. The encore didn’t ramp up the excitement factor: the ballads Who Says and Gravity ended the night and sent the crowd home feeling warm and mellow.
The mood was totally different for the opening act, Michael Franti & Spearhead, who started the night on a positive trip with a mixture of reggae, hip hop and acoustic rock. The atmosphere was totally different from his recent appearances at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, but he did his best to create a similar vibe and he probably made a few new fans.
"We’ve been on the road and it’s been unseasonably cold for April, I feel warm in here tonight," the California native said before the bouncy folk-pop of Sound of Sunshine, the title track of his forthcoming album.
He headed into the crowd in his bare feet to sing and dance with the audience during Yell Fire! and pulling some people up on stage to dance. Franti finished his hour long set by inviting the entire arena on stage and telling everyone to get on stage and dance during Say Hey (I Love You). More than 20 were allowed up, but hundreds more flooded onto the floor to gather in front of the stage to sing along and dance to the jubilant pop song.
How could Mayer top that? He couldn’t.
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