It was 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday night. I was on the commuter rail from Brandeis/Roberts to North Station. In my jacket pocket I had 21 pages of study notes because I had two midterms the next day and an essay due the day after. So what was I doing on the commuter rail? Going to the John Mayer concert, of course. I worried that I wasn't going to be able to focus on the concert with so much to do when I got back, but by the time I walked out of TD Banknorth Garden, music was the first thing on my mind.I walked into the concert to sounds of the opener, Michael Franti and Spearhead, rocking out on stage to a song I had never heard but very much enjoyed. Michael Franti and Spearhead is not a household name, but after what I heard, it should be. All of the band members played well together, and you could tell there was a cohesive family feeling. Their music is fun and funky and just makes you want to jump around. As the band played its last song, "Say Hi (I Love You)," its first top-20 hit in the members' 30 years of playing together, they invited up all the kids in the audience on stage (I failed at passing for a tall 8-year-old). It was a very fun big finish to an altogether solid performance before the man of the night, John Mayer, came out.

After 30 minutes of setup and anticipation, sheer screens circled the stage to an uproar of crowd excitement. After about two minutes of dark silence, a classic movie countdown appeared and once it hit zero, successive images of John Mayer's face, walking legs, and a shadow silhouette appeared as a light shone in the middle of the stage to reveal Mayer as he played his first song of the night, "Heartbreak Warfare." Though not my favorite song, as the opening song on his new album, Battle Studies, it was a fitting start to the concert. I do have to say that the sad attitude of some of the album's songs comes across much better live when you can feel the energy of the artist of the stage. If there was any doubt of Mayer's talent, his second song, "Good Love is On the Way," instantly calmed the fears. A technically difficult song with lots of excitement and incredible guitar solos, it proved that Mayer is still the best at what he does.

The entire set list had incredible variety, incorporating songs from his whole career and maintaining bluesy rather than sappy feel. The best song of the night, though, wasn't even a John Mayer original. Mayer loves covering songs and making them his own, and on Wednesday night he did just that with "Ain't No Sunshine" an incredibly smooth blues song that absolutely blew me away. As a Bill Withers fan, I'd say Mayer more than did the song justice.

Beyond the music, Mayer has a connection to Boston-he went to Berklee College of Music for two semesters-and that was very evident throughout the show. He prefaced his third song, "No Such Thing," one of the only songs he played off his first album, with, "I wrote this in room 737 on 151 Mass. Ave.," and later in the show he mentioned "walking along Newbury Street trying to figure out my life and dreams hoping to be a great musician some day."

While his message was truthful and a really nice change to hear after a flurry of bad publicity these past few weeks, Mayer's music outshone everything that entire night. His entire tabloid-filled past melted away as every single song was filled with deep solos that seemed like the music was directly ingrained in him. Playing to a sold-out crowd in a place where he used to just be a fan, he made everyone feel like stars by thanking the crowd and having them sing along to his music.

John Mayer is great, but so is his band. Steve Jordan, Mayer's good friend and longtime drummer, played the most incredible drum solo I have ever had the pleasure to hear. The intensity and virtuosity of the solo is not even describable. While not every member took a solo, they all played excellently the entire night, backing Mayer in a show that not only rivals what you hear on the album but blows it out of the water.

I wrote in my review of Battle Studies that Mayer had lost his focus and created sappy songs for the heart instead of playing to the musician he truly is. Boy, oh boy: After his concert was I ever wrong for doubting him. He must have been holding back on his album to blow fans away live because the man I saw up on stage for two-plus hours with a microphone and guitar was better than anything I had ever heard on an album by the artist John Mayer. As I walked out of TD Banknorth Garden back to the commuter rail, back to Brandeis, back into my room with study notes in hand, I started studying again with a smile on my face and the faint sound of a solo still ringing in my ears.