I’m just going to say straight up that this entire post is going to be about Maroon 5. If you do not listen to their music, or do not like their music, I highly recommend skipping this post (also, why don’t you listen to / like their music??). Feel free to go and read something more worthwhile. I can give you suggestions if you’re short on ideas.
Anyway, my music taste is pretty mainstream, so obviously I’m a big fan of Maroon 5 (they’re pretty mainstream, right? I mean, they get played on the radio so much… Not that I’m complaining…)
Last night, I went to see their concert and, since I did a post for The Script’s concert (actually, I’m pretty sure I did at least two posts for them), I am definitely writing one for Maroon 5. (Side note: I’d say The Script is also pretty mainstream, but less so than Maroon 5.) Part of me wants to draw comparisons between the two concerts, but I think I’ll just write about this one on its own merits.
First off, honorary mentions to the support/opening acts: Conrad Sewell and Dirty Loops. Pretty good performances from them both; got the energy going, etc.
When Maroon 5 got on the stage, though… wow… They smashed out a lot of high-energy songs at the start, one after the other. There were some nice chill moments when Adam Levine was just kind of chatting to us, but I’m kind of impressed with how many songs they fit into that concert. And they played some of their old songs, among which were my favourites, “Sunday morning” and “She will be loved”. According to Adam, they wrote “She will be loved” in about 20 minutes.
I particularly liked the acoustic intro they did for “Pay phone”, where they were all standing together in the middle of the stage, kind of in a huddle. And whenever they got the audience to join in and sing parts of the songs – there was something about that that just put a big smile on my face (as I sang along).
And the drum solos, the guitar solos, the frickin’ light displays and everything were all amazing. (Can you tell I’m kind of still on a bit of a high from last night? Might also be all those exercise-induced endorphins from my run earlier, but whatever..)
During the night, I also found myself looking around at the audience a bit, too. Just glancing around to marvel at the fact that all these people came out for a concert on a Monday night because they love this same music that I love. There were actually a lot of people in their 30s and 40s (and maybe even older) at the concert, and they seemed to be the ones who were most into the whole thing. I mean, they were all up off their seats, dancing and singing along, while some younger fans actually seemed content to just sit down for most of it.
There was one thing I was kind of disappointed with, though. It wasn’t about anything that Maroon 5 did (although I was slightly, slightly disappointed that they didn’t perform “The man who never lied”, but I never really expected them to do that song anyway, so I suppose that’s ok). What I was (kind of) disappointed with was the audience’s enthusiasm and persistence during the “fake end of the concert”. Basically, they played “Daylight” and then acted like it was the end of the show, said goodnight and left the stage; and this was when everyone was supposed to cheer and clap and whatever to get them to come back (seems to be a thing that artists do at concerts, like a test or something).
Now, I only really have The Script’s concert to compare it to, but when The Script pulled the same stunt, the energy from the crowd was tremendous – it just built and built until the band came back on stage. Last night’s crowd, however… Well, it could be because a lot of them might have been at work all day (and we all know how Mondays are) but the energy kind of just came in waves. There was still pretty incredible force behind it, but based on my previous experience, I was expecting more.
Overall, though, it was such an amazing concert. I would list all the songs they did, but there were so many. I was pleasantly surprised that they did “Lucky strike”, which I’ve actually just heard and taken a liking to this year. (Props to you if you made the connection between the title of this post and “Lucky strike” before getting to this paragraph.)
Of course, they saved “Sugar” for last, since it’s their big hit at the moment. But they also played “Locked away” and (omg!) Rock City made a guest appearance just for that song. Frickin’ unreal! Too bad they couldn’t get Christina Aguilera to come in for “Moves like Jagger” but I suppose Adam did a good job of it anyway 😛
I think I’ve said this before, but there actually isn’t a single Maroon 5 song that I do not like – and I know a lot of their songs. I knew all the ones they played at the concert, and for a lot of them I knew the lyrics too, so this was kind of the perfect concert for me.
pistachio conspiracy #63 