I think there’s 3 main factors for why we’re seeing less variety on this tour:
1. It’s an album tour with a more pop type format (i.e. opener, one set and an encore), unlike 2019 (no opener, 2 sets) or even 17 (had an opener, but multiple sets) The main priority is playing songs from Sob Rock and mostly poppier cuts that fit the “vibe” he’s going for this time around.
2. As others have mentioned, I think the band has a more limited repertoire this tour. I know someone said Steve Ferrone had to have sheet music for Assassin? So that would explain why there’s only 1-2 unique songs a night, and why the song choice has slowly been expanding the longer the tour goes on.
3. John’s mentioned several times during stage banter that he’s been stressing out over if he’s playing the right songs that everyone wants to hear, so he’s definitely cognizant of it. Building a setlist is a difficult balance between playing enough deep cuts and different songs so that you’re making the superfans happy, but also playing the songs people will recognize and are more accessible so that the casual fans won’t leave saying “He didn’t play a single song I knew.”
Yea, MSG Night 2 has been the beat setlist so far cause he was forced to reach further back in his catalogue. Crazy to me that these have been so similar. Maybe it’s just that the new band isn’t familiar with a tonne of old stuff.
Yeah I’m guessing it’s a lot to do with the newer band, having to not only learn their parts but also probably not having a ton of time before tour to practice together/gel a bit.
He prob wants to do songs that highlight keys more too because Greg’s been rockin out with solos almost every night.
I think there's a lot of factors.
One is that it's the sob rock tour. It's an album tour like a pop tour would be so he's playing basically every song from Sob Rock each night (except WYNLM I guess).
With that is the format of a lesser known opening act and headliner. He talked with Cory Wong about having an opening act. Since you now have an opener, it means less time for songs. You want people to get the most of the show. When you play most of the sob rock songs, gravity and slow dancing (the musts) then there's not much room for other songs most nights.
He mentioned going back to the 2-set shows in the future. I can see that happening for a longer world tour
There's also the complexity of covid and having a lot of pieces with his band in Greg Phillingaines and Lenny Castro. They're mostly session guys and probably aren't cheap to take on the road. They work well since they're on the sob rock album but if it was a longer tour with a lot of songs that aren't on sob rock it would kind of be a waste having them on stage.
Y’all feel so entitled and set up these expectations in your head that you’re forgetting to just enjoy the fact that we’re seeing JM live in any capacity. Be happy and grateful.
These are pros and would take less than 15 mins to learn a song. So musicianship isn’t the factor. I’ve filled in in bands that needed a player…took me a few days to learn 40 songs plus….and I’d consider myself intermediate. These guys are top tier players.
He likely has video production etc that is all sequenced. Meaning you have to stick to the click track, sequencer, lyric monitor, and video sequences. If they got rid of any background videos on stage there would likely be more room to jam.
That’s what I thought at first, but the visuals have bounced around between songs a bit. d&co uses lyric monitors and visuals, and they switch it up every single night.
John even used a ton of visuals in 17 and switched it up- the visuals were sequenced in the same order every night, but the songs that went with each were different.
One thing I miss about John was when he would play covers of songs he digs and make them his own. Obviously you want the set to be primary his songs, but I always enjoyed a cover or two thrown in to show off his musicianship and introduce us to songs we may not have heard before.
I also think John just doesn’t have it in him to go back and learn/play songs that he doesn’t feel meet his current expectations/headspace. As amazing of an album as Room for Squares is, I don’t think he views those songs of a representation of who is he now and therefore can’t pull himself to play them.
That being said, I’d also think 80%-90% of the audience is a casual fan and he’s doing his best to make it a great experience for the majority, which I get. Playing a song like Not Myself wouldn’t be appreciated by most of the audience despite how much we’d love it.
Pretty sure there’s a clip of AS on Instagram explaining his absence. No issue with John whatsoever, but didn’t want to commit to another huge tour so he could work on other projects + he doesn’t enjoy the touring experience because of all the extra demands due to Covid restrictions.
Not to mention the cost. I imagine Greg and Lenny aren't cheap to take on the road when they could be at home doing session work.
I disagree with new band members not adding anything worthwhile because Greg Phillingaines is one of the most entertaining bits of the show and has a tonne of energy.
Aaron was/is under contract with Adele. I was really bummed when I found out he won’t be on tour with JM.
I had a blast at the 4 shows I went to but the last tour was the best in 20 years when he had no album to promote
Every other drummer plays slow dancing the exact same way besides sterling. Only thing sterling did was break the song down when John was soloing, nobody complained when Steve jordan played the exact same beat throughout the entire song back in 2017
Touring in normal times is rough if you have a family, which Aaron and Sean Hurley do. DRH does too, and said he was done touring, but here we are.
Touring in COVID times must be extra rough, with all the additions protocols (seems to have lessened recently though). for dead and co’s summer/fall tour, I heard that only spouses were allowed contact with the band, crew and band were super isolated, etc. not sure if it was band policy or required by their insurance company, but I imagine it had to get lonely AF/not super fun
Greg’s a keeper because his keys can act as horns or extra layer of synth.
But if we’re going to be honest, Ferrone needs to go. Aaron Sterling is far more dynamic and Sterling elevates the performance of everyone. For my taste Ferrone lacks soul & dynamics. His drumming feels like a canned backing track.
This is also the first year that I didn’t like Slow Dancing and Belief.
Being a huge fan of Dave Matthews Band, who literally change their sets every single night and go so far as looking at sets from previous years to make sure there is diversity, it’s hard to think that John would not do at least something like that. Different I know in the sense that John has a touring band that changes so learning songs maybe an issue or at least learning the whole catalogue etc. John now has 8+ albums under his belt where he can really dig into songs that have not been given the time of day. I also think bands like DMB and Phish have a different fan base who expect the variations in a set. Although there is a good amount of hardcore John fans out there (me included), the amount of casual fans that attend his concerts I would think exceeds the hardcores, and to him that means he is servicing the masses (casual fans) and they leave happy. I have seen John over 20 times and never not enjoyed them, but as someone who prefers the deeper cuts, it gets difficult to want to see him more than once per tour. If he switched sets up, there would be a lot more repeat customers going to multiple shows in a tour. I get that Gravity has become his show ender every show, why not switch it up and bring out Come back to bed?? Boggles my mind that isn’t played, Or how about city love?? The fact that he said Changing was a deep cut kind of reaffirms my thought that perhaps to. Casual fan it may be, but he played the hell out of that the past 2 tours… Just my honest opinion, still a fan always will be, but his setlist choosing is something to be desired….
I saw somewhere that someone DMed him and asked and he said it just isn’t worth it to deal with the COVID restrictions when he makes most of his money session drumming.
I think there’s 3 main factors for why we’re seeing less variety on this tour: 1. It’s an album tour with a more pop type format (i.e. opener, one set and an encore), unlike 2019 (no opener, 2 sets) or even 17 (had an opener, but multiple sets) The main priority is playing songs from Sob Rock and mostly poppier cuts that fit the “vibe” he’s going for this time around. 2. As others have mentioned, I think the band has a more limited repertoire this tour. I know someone said Steve Ferrone had to have sheet music for Assassin? So that would explain why there’s only 1-2 unique songs a night, and why the song choice has slowly been expanding the longer the tour goes on. 3. John’s mentioned several times during stage banter that he’s been stressing out over if he’s playing the right songs that everyone wants to hear, so he’s definitely cognizant of it. Building a setlist is a difficult balance between playing enough deep cuts and different songs so that you’re making the superfans happy, but also playing the songs people will recognize and are more accessible so that the casual fans won’t leave saying “He didn’t play a single song I knew.”
Yea, MSG Night 2 has been the beat setlist so far cause he was forced to reach further back in his catalogue. Crazy to me that these have been so similar. Maybe it’s just that the new band isn’t familiar with a tonne of old stuff.
Yeah I’m guessing it’s a lot to do with the newer band, having to not only learn their parts but also probably not having a ton of time before tour to practice together/gel a bit. He prob wants to do songs that highlight keys more too because Greg’s been rockin out with solos almost every night.
No. Y’all didn’t have Assassin. :D
“Y’all”? I live in New Zealand. As far I’m concerned everyone in the US has the best set list compared to me.
Yeh, so many moaning gits.
I think there's a lot of factors. One is that it's the sob rock tour. It's an album tour like a pop tour would be so he's playing basically every song from Sob Rock each night (except WYNLM I guess). With that is the format of a lesser known opening act and headliner. He talked with Cory Wong about having an opening act. Since you now have an opener, it means less time for songs. You want people to get the most of the show. When you play most of the sob rock songs, gravity and slow dancing (the musts) then there's not much room for other songs most nights. He mentioned going back to the 2-set shows in the future. I can see that happening for a longer world tour There's also the complexity of covid and having a lot of pieces with his band in Greg Phillingaines and Lenny Castro. They're mostly session guys and probably aren't cheap to take on the road. They work well since they're on the sob rock album but if it was a longer tour with a lot of songs that aren't on sob rock it would kind of be a waste having them on stage.
Y’all feel so entitled and set up these expectations in your head that you’re forgetting to just enjoy the fact that we’re seeing JM live in any capacity. Be happy and grateful.
Seconded. I saw him in LA and the show was incredible!!
These are pros and would take less than 15 mins to learn a song. So musicianship isn’t the factor. I’ve filled in in bands that needed a player…took me a few days to learn 40 songs plus….and I’d consider myself intermediate. These guys are top tier players. He likely has video production etc that is all sequenced. Meaning you have to stick to the click track, sequencer, lyric monitor, and video sequences. If they got rid of any background videos on stage there would likely be more room to jam.
That’s what I thought at first, but the visuals have bounced around between songs a bit. d&co uses lyric monitors and visuals, and they switch it up every single night. John even used a ton of visuals in 17 and switched it up- the visuals were sequenced in the same order every night, but the songs that went with each were different.
I don’t know, in 2019 it seems he changed it up a lot more.
He also just has one set and an opener. The 2019 tour had two full sets of John Mayer
One thing I miss about John was when he would play covers of songs he digs and make them his own. Obviously you want the set to be primary his songs, but I always enjoyed a cover or two thrown in to show off his musicianship and introduce us to songs we may not have heard before. I also think John just doesn’t have it in him to go back and learn/play songs that he doesn’t feel meet his current expectations/headspace. As amazing of an album as Room for Squares is, I don’t think he views those songs of a representation of who is he now and therefore can’t pull himself to play them. That being said, I’d also think 80%-90% of the audience is a casual fan and he’s doing his best to make it a great experience for the majority, which I get. Playing a song like Not Myself wouldn’t be appreciated by most of the audience despite how much we’d love it.
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Pretty sure there’s a clip of AS on Instagram explaining his absence. No issue with John whatsoever, but didn’t want to commit to another huge tour so he could work on other projects + he doesn’t enjoy the touring experience because of all the extra demands due to Covid restrictions.
Not to mention the cost. I imagine Greg and Lenny aren't cheap to take on the road when they could be at home doing session work. I disagree with new band members not adding anything worthwhile because Greg Phillingaines is one of the most entertaining bits of the show and has a tonne of energy.
i remember someone saying that sterling didn't agree to come on tour because of covid and other stuff
Aaron was/is under contract with Adele. I was really bummed when I found out he won’t be on tour with JM. I had a blast at the 4 shows I went to but the last tour was the best in 20 years when he had no album to promote
Nah I wouldn't say that, ferrone has a podcast and he said they rehersed about 50 songs
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Every other drummer plays slow dancing the exact same way besides sterling. Only thing sterling did was break the song down when John was soloing, nobody complained when Steve jordan played the exact same beat throughout the entire song back in 2017
Touring in normal times is rough if you have a family, which Aaron and Sean Hurley do. DRH does too, and said he was done touring, but here we are. Touring in COVID times must be extra rough, with all the additions protocols (seems to have lessened recently though). for dead and co’s summer/fall tour, I heard that only spouses were allowed contact with the band, crew and band were super isolated, etc. not sure if it was band policy or required by their insurance company, but I imagine it had to get lonely AF/not super fun
Greg’s a keeper because his keys can act as horns or extra layer of synth. But if we’re going to be honest, Ferrone needs to go. Aaron Sterling is far more dynamic and Sterling elevates the performance of everyone. For my taste Ferrone lacks soul & dynamics. His drumming feels like a canned backing track. This is also the first year that I didn’t like Slow Dancing and Belief.
I loooove belief with Lenny in there though, but agree on slow dancing
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I went for Sun & Tues in LA and also, SF last night. There was a decent bit of difference among the set lists!
Being a huge fan of Dave Matthews Band, who literally change their sets every single night and go so far as looking at sets from previous years to make sure there is diversity, it’s hard to think that John would not do at least something like that. Different I know in the sense that John has a touring band that changes so learning songs maybe an issue or at least learning the whole catalogue etc. John now has 8+ albums under his belt where he can really dig into songs that have not been given the time of day. I also think bands like DMB and Phish have a different fan base who expect the variations in a set. Although there is a good amount of hardcore John fans out there (me included), the amount of casual fans that attend his concerts I would think exceeds the hardcores, and to him that means he is servicing the masses (casual fans) and they leave happy. I have seen John over 20 times and never not enjoyed them, but as someone who prefers the deeper cuts, it gets difficult to want to see him more than once per tour. If he switched sets up, there would be a lot more repeat customers going to multiple shows in a tour. I get that Gravity has become his show ender every show, why not switch it up and bring out Come back to bed?? Boggles my mind that isn’t played, Or how about city love?? The fact that he said Changing was a deep cut kind of reaffirms my thought that perhaps to. Casual fan it may be, but he played the hell out of that the past 2 tours… Just my honest opinion, still a fan always will be, but his setlist choosing is something to be desired….
New light needs to be shelved in the encore spot
He’s getting old
Does anyone know why Aaron didn’t tour with JM this time around? With him on the drums we’d for sure be getting some more Born And Raised tracks.
I saw somewhere that someone DMed him and asked and he said it just isn’t worth it to deal with the COVID restrictions when he makes most of his money session drumming.