The first time I saw Maroon 5 was in August 2011 at Jones Beach Theater while they were on tour with Train. Their entire set was amazing, but after the crowd sing-a-long to ‘She Will Be Loved’ I knew I had to see them again. The next time I planned to go was a flop because I waited to long to get tickets and the prices were just outrageous. This time around when the tour was announced I knew I had to be there. Four years from my first time seeing them, I have to see them for a third.
This time around it was at the Izod Center and it’s one of the last concerts to be played at the venue. Getting there and finding a parking spot was no problem, thanks for the $25 parking fee (it could be worse), and getting in was a semi-breeze. The first thing my friend and I did was get the overprice T-shirt. I mean how could you pass that up? They weren’t that bad, priced at $40 a pop. Sweatshirts were like $50+.
Enough rambling, on to the show. I had decent seats sitting in the 100 section directly in front of the stage. First up was Adam’s artist, Rozzi Crane. She had a very powerful voice and even merged in Beyonce’s ‘Flawless’ and Jay-Z’s ‘Can I Get A’, but the music drowned her out and it was hard for me to comprehend what the hell she was singing. The last song she performed, ‘Psycho’ she said was off her EP, Space, and I enjoyed that one. Once she left the stage there was like a 15-20min. gap before Magic! came out.
Another reason I jumped on this concert, aside from Maroon 5, was because I knew Magic! would be opening for them and I loved their album. Luckily I had great seats because for some reason they decided not to put the band on the screen. The screens obviously worked as they did for the previous set and there were advertisements during the set changes. They performed: ‘Don’t Kill the Magic’, covered ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ and mashed in ‘Message in a Bottle’. My night was made as they performed one of my favs from the album, ‘Mama Didn’t Raise No Fool’. Their set ended with ‘Rude’, obviously. I got a very Bruno Mars vibe from the group, especially with their red suits. Only thing that would’ve mad the set better was to actually see them clearly. I enjoyed the music regardless.
Now on to the main attraction, Maroon 5. They opened up their set with ‘Animal’ and the energy kept going from there. The set list included: ‘One more night’, ‘Stereo Hearts’,
‘Harder to breathe’, ‘My Lucky Strike’, ‘Wake Up Call’, ‘Love Somebody’, ‘Maps’, ‘This Love’, ‘Sunday Morning’, ‘Makes Me Wonder’, ‘Payphone’, ‘Daylight’, ‘It Was Always You’, ‘She Will Be Loved’, ‘Moves Like Jagger’, and ‘Sugar’.
The best thing about their set was the constant interaction and wanting the energy from the crowd. It’s nothing like going to a show and feeling a part of it the entire time. The best moment was during ‘She Will Be Loved’ when Adam asked everyone to put their cell phones away and enjoy the f*cking moment (his words). That’s by far my favorite Maroon 5 song and to have everyone in synch singing their hearts out was amazing.
The show was mixed with the old and the new music which I loved. I mean I enjoyed their new stuff, but it’s nothing like vintage Maroon 5. What was surprising was how many families were there. Kudos to Adam’s coaching job on The Voice for that crowd. Great show, great energy, and I can’t wait to see them again.
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