Mayer reviewed and analyzed

CROSSROADS: Only in the case of John Mayer is a concert reviewer required to throw in an assessment of character as well as performance. In his review of the first of two shows late last week at Madison Square Garden, N.Y. Times reviewer Jon Caramanica pointed out that “Mayer is an astonishing blues guitarist, both in his technical gifts and in his ability to make those gifts appear accessible,” while also pondering the artist’s silence on Twitter and elsewhere since soon after the appearance of his gaffe-filled Playboy(3/1a) interview. “He may be an old-fashioned sort of musician,” Caramanica notes, “but he’s a hypermodern sort of celebrity, and that can lead to trouble, real or imagined.” Nonetheless, “Mayer’s quick remorse, followed by quiet, has mostly quelled the backlash against him.” So how was the show, dude? (3/1a)