Live Review: John Mayer and Sheryl Crow

Live Review: John Mayer and Sheryl Crow

Lessons learned from Crow and Mayer: Aidin Vaziri | Sheryl Crow has humongous hits! Unlike Mayer, who was intent on pimping new material from his self-produced third solo album, "Continuum," released just a few days ago, Crow stuck with what everyone knew best, slow-drip MOR staples such as "Good Is Good," "My Favorite Mistake" (with a chemistry-free cameo from Mayer) and her 33-rpm version of the 45-speed, "The First Cut Is the Deepest." Love her, hate her, or just want to hit yourself over the head with a pillowcase full of pennies when you see her, she's got a couple of tunes. But throughout her sleepy, 75-minute set, Crow only managed to get people moving with a last-ditch charge through rockier material like "If It Makes You Happy," "Soak Up the Sun" and a thoroughly unexpected cover of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll." By that point most people were already at the condiment counter trying to find that perfect balance of relish and mustard. Mayer, meanwhile, seemed determined to disown his biggest hits, such as "Your Body Is a Wonderland," which was either the best or worst thing about the show, depending on how you feel about bubblegum ballads that play in the background of the crying scenes on "The O.C." During his jam-laden 80-minute set, in which he constantly switched off between acoustic and electric guitars, it was hard to deny that the audience reserved most of its enthusiasm for the songs that it actually, like, knew, such as "Daughters" and "No Such Thing." If the bursts of wild applause didn't give Mayer the hint, then the stream of people walking out in the middle of his performance should have sent the message across loud and clear.