John Mayer’s career trajectory has been a curious one: he started off as the manifestation of every guitar playing nerd nesting under the tree of your college quad, before pivoting to a more introspective guise for his 2006 album Continuum. A series of ill-conceived comments and whirlwind affairs turned the tide against him and his music, with many labeling him as rock’s biggest douchebags. Mayer took the backlash to retreat and reinvent himself once more, honing his already exemplary guitar chops with an eight-year stint with Grateful Dead offshoot Dead & Company, which led Mayer to rediscover himself personally and musically. 

Mayer, now 45 and 22 years removed from his first album, has worn other hats throughout his career, but these are the most significant, and they’re the ones that helped Mayer become the humorous, thoughtful modern troubadour that was on display for the last of three solo shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Armed with an arsenal of guitars, the show was an intimate, stripped down affair that made the vast arena feel like a small theater or club; it wasn’t just the bare-bones arrangements of the songs that created the vibe, but Mayer’s casual, disarming charisma and showmanship.

Mayer isn’t just a great musician, he’s a natural showman whose between-song dialogue often had the crowd in stitches; a sloppy attempt at “Vultures” on the piano had Mayer hilariously poking fun at his rudimentary piano skills, which he countered by following it up with a gorgeously rendered “You’re Gonna Love Forever in Me.” He even poked fun at his early lyrical immaturity in the prelude to his infamous hit “Your Body is a Wonderland,” which hit the crowd’s nostalgia button as they enthusiastically sang and swayed along to the endearingly cheesy 2003 hit.

He built enough trust with the crowd to play a new song (words Mayer said send “a chill down the spines of the audience”), “Drifitn’,” and acknowledged a fan’s request to hear “Wheel,” a song they had not heard despite having seen Mayer 20 times since 2004. The final round of applause was so rapturous that Mayer came back out for an unplanned encore, his cover of Tom Petty’s “Free Falling.”

Even in an acoustic setting, Mayer’s guitar playing is a force to be reckoned with: his playing was thoughtful, nuanced, and soulful on every song, particularly on the evergreen “Gravity” and a reinvented “Wild Blue.”

The show showcased the full depth of his artistry as well as his growth as both a musician and a person. If you have a chance to go see him, don’t hesitate. It’s a worthwhile 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Set list:

1. Slow Dancing a Burning Room

2. Whiskey, Whiskey, Whiskey

3. Wild Blue

4. Queen of California

5. Why Georgia

6. Who Says

7. Shouldn’t Matter But It Does

8. Neon

9. Driftin’

10. In Your Atmosphere

11. Vultures *

12. You’re Gonna Live Forever in Me*

13. Changing*

14. Stop This Train

15. New Light

16. Gravity +

17. Your Body is a Wonderland

18. Covered in Rain

19. Walt Grace’s Submarine Test, January 1967

20. If I Ever Get Around to Living ~

21. Edge of Desire ~

Encore:

22. Wheel

23. Free Fallin’

* Mayer on piano

+ Mayer on electric guitar

~ Mayer on double-neck acoustic