During a break from Dead & Company tour in June of 2018 John Mayer started to build “Sob Rock” on your Instagram in portrait mode from Electric Lady studios in New York City. The IGTV episode compartmentalizes the ideas behind the albums first single “New Light”. Mayer said on a Tales from the Golden Road broadcast that Dead & Company is a little “Hendrixy.” Well Sob Rock is a little “Princey.” Mayer takes you on the ride from the songs original sample to one of Prince’s guitars making it’s way on the album. It was unplanned that it showed up during the recording.
He even put a compressor on the studio sound like the Purple one used to do. Mayer tells IGTV during the making of “New Light”… There’s this moment at the end of the solo going in to the last chorus…that’s cool. When you got a guy like Pino Palladino for a turn around like that, you set the dude free and go let him just feel it out.
Bassist Pino Palladino joins guitarist Isaiah Sharkey, drummer Steve Farrone, percussionist Lenny Castro, keyboardists Gregg Phillinganes & Jamie Muhoberac, guitarist and vocalist David Ryan Harris, Carlos Ricketts, Tiffany Palmer, and John Mayer for the “Sob Rock” 2022 tour. It hits 20 cities this year. Mayer debuted “New Light” in the encore live with a Phish like confetti curation during his last solo world tour opener in Albany in July of 2019.
Mayer welcomed everyone at Albany’s old Knickerbocker Arena to “The Sob Rock Era” on the February 17 2022 debut show. The former “Dozin at the Knick” room holds the same stage Mayer birthed his Dead & Company role for transportation in October of 2015. Oteil Burbridge told NYS music about his perception in Dead & Co. “When Bill Walton says you’re good you stop worrying.” In fact the next venue the new group played that tour was MSG.
Let me tell you something this blows my mind. I’m up here playing these songs and I look out to see you & the dream is complete. Thank you.
John Mayer
The Albany audience responded with the same pieces of 80’s flair as Mayer on stage. The crowd sported radio walkmans with dead tape in deck, vintage commercials, faded sport jackets, tie dyes, scrunchies, wayfarers, Sob Rock newspapers, Stealie fleeces and Fast Times at Ridgemont High piano scarfs in motion. John Mayer thanked Lee Chris Art mid show for her vibe in the crowd.
The last train home carried the act down the Hudson River to Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden for two sold out evenings of John Mayer on February 20 and 21. Mayer’s last two night run at the Garden was with the Dead & Company for Halloween 2019.
It should come as no surprise that the only artists work weaved in the tour’s set list so far is “The Beautiful Ones” by Prince sung by “Sob Rock” guitarist David Ryan Harris. John saw David Ryan Harris from the crowd during his sit in with the Leroi Moore era Dave Matthews Band at Jones Beach in 1995. Mayer and his new band also played material off “Room for Squares”, “Heavier Things”, “Continuum”, “Battle Studies”, “Born and Raised”, “Paradise Valley”, and “The Search for Everything”.
Mayer encouraged everyone in Albany to dance in unison to “Moving on and Getting Over”. John sings to “Rosie” at the Garden… Don’t Leave me here under the January rain, come let me in, take my heart by the hand. “I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)” was played in Albany and New York City for those suspicious minds in each town.
I will beg my way in to your garden and then I’ll break my way out when it rains. Monday night at Madison Square Garden had the show turn split screen for a special presentation. For the first time ever the “Sob Rock” catalog was performed live stripped down acoustic along side many other classics on the fourth night of the tour. It felt vert reminiscent of The Grateful Dead’s 1980 Radio City Halloween shows that split the bill acoustic & electric.
Mayer started the night solo to light the room with “Neon”. He led the pack from his seated chair on the psychedelic piece “If I Ever Get Around To Living” that explored the Garden’s room. Tom Petty’s Drummer Steve Farrone is also a part of Sob Rock University. David Ryan Harris and John Mayer did an acoustic duo cover of “Free Falling” for extra credit.
The only other artist work besides Mayer to be featured on the acoustic set was Paul Simon. Mayer sang Simon’s “Homeward Bound” as the outro to his original track “Stop this Train” at Penn Station. The set closed with a “Sob Rock” & “Graceland” album hybrid debut. Mayer and the entire Garden sang “You Can Call Me Al” in between his new original “Til the Right One Comes”.
Monday nights special guest in place of Steve Farrone was Philadelphia’s Questlove fresh off his January birthday. Sob Rock guitarist Isaiah Sharkey is a fan of the Philadelphonic sound in Manhattan. Sharkey told NYS music in July that his most influential show from a NY crowd was Pennsylvania’s Joey DeFrancesco at the legendary Blue Note in the village. Philli’ born Saxophonist Vanessa Collier told NYS Music about Questlove’s knowledge and love of music.
It’s not a surface level thing with Questlove. It’s all life. He knows every groove from every single song he’s heard. From a DJ perspective and drummer angle is great.
Vanessa Collier
Questlove was on his way to attend “Sob Rock” at the Garden when he found out he would be sitting in for one of his favorite drummers. Quest’s stop at Penn Station from Rockefeller was immediately felt during “Vultures” to open the second set. He sat on the throne for the six song electric change up & encore. Quest, who laid studio drums to Mayer’s 2004 cut ”Clarity”, loved playing it live to a sold out Garden. The Sob Rock cast saved Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones” snippet for Quest’s set as well. “Something like Olivia” hit like “Lay Down Sally” at MSG.
All the Sallys swaying next to the wrong Harrys in the audience at the Garden caught a vibe during “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” to end the show. John Mayer & Isaiah Sharkey pick’s light the same fire Eric Clapton & Robert Cray’s “Old Love” burned in 1989 when he debuted “Journeyman”. In similar fashion Keith Richards & Ivan Neville are headlining the Love Rocks NYC benefit at the Beacon Theater in March to recast his 1989 X-Pensive Winos to the stage with Steve Jordan.
Truth be told I coulda played the whole show. I texted Jimmy (Fallon) earlier I felt like Don Henley in 1988 when last minute he played drums for Guns N’ Roses at the AMA’s. It was hella fun tonight.
Questlove
Pino Palladino certainly saw a dead head sticker on a Cadillac on the way to the Garden. He plays bass on Don Henley’s big apple island ballad “New York Minute.” Jimmy Fallon had a head full of roses and calavera art on his face in the crowd during Dead & Company’s Halloween show at MSG in 2019. John Mayer took a solo during “Standing on the Moon” that night which permeated through the worlds most famous arena in to “Gravity” for his own band’s 2022 encores. In a New York minute everything can change.
Mayer is truly channeling the same solo paths that Petty & Garcia once trailed. Sob Rock’s vibe is very Traveling Wilburys though. Drummer Steve Farrone has backed George Harrison, Tom Petty, and Eric Clapton. George Harrison once reflected about Eric Clapton’s stage presence from the crowd during his legendary Rainbow Theatre Concert from London in January of 1973.
While dressed in an all white suit with his foot tapping on the stage Harrison said he took on the glow of an angel playing a long to the music. At 44, Mayer keeps his gravity where the same light Leroi shines on him. Except the New Light is Purple.
John Mayer, Madison Square Garden – February 20, 2022
Setlist: Last Train Home, Shot in the Dark, Belief, Something like Olivia, I Guess I Just Feel Like, Who Says, Rosie, Shouldn’t Matter but it Does, Helpless, Your Body is a Wonderland, I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You), Wild Blue, Edge of Desire, Til’ The Right One Comes, The Beautiful Ones*, Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, New Light, Waiting on the World to Change, All I Want Is To Be With You
Encore: Gravity
*Prince Piece sang by David Ryan Harris
John Mayer, Madison Square Garden – February 21, 2022
Acoustic Set: Neon, Last Train Home, Shot in the Dark, Belief, In the Blood, If I Ever Get Around to Living, New Light, Wild Blue, Your Body is a Wonderland, In Your Atmosphere, Somethings Missing, Daughters, Free Fallin’. Carry Me Away, Who Says, Stop This Train*(Homeward Bound), Til’ The Right One Comes *(You Can Call Me Al)
Encore: Gravity
*Paul Simon verse
Questlove Set: Vultures, Clarity, Something Like Olivia, The Beautiful Ones**, Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
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