Maroon 5 at The O2 | Review

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Maroon 5 at The o2, Dublin on January 16th 2014

A mainly female crowd poured into the O2, filling it to almost capacity for the return of Maroon 5 after a three year absence from Irish shores. Support on the night came from Maroon 5’s own keyboard player PJ Morton and big Beetlejuice fan Robin Thicke.

Deafening screams erupted around the venue as the band emerged for opening number One More Night; flanked by impressive green imprint graphics the L.A. five piece clearly wasted no money on production. Showing he has learned a thing or two from his many, many model conquests, Levine used the stage’s built in runway to strut his stuff while flanked by his frantic female fan-base.

You can’t talk about Maroon 5 without discussing the band’s lead singer Levine; tattooed, toned and handsome with a cocky charisma, he is the ideal front man for a band. Recently crowned People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive”, Levine oozes sex appeal on stage. To paraphrase LMAFO, he’s sexy and he knows it. Confident in all his movements, he dances with hypnotic hips like a modern day Elvis Presley. Crowd talk is kept to a minimum, which is a shame given Levine’s natural comedic flare.

For a band that have had so many pop radio hits, and let’s face it, can write a damn fine credible song when they want to, Maroon 5 made the odd choice to include covers of Prince’s I Wanna Be Your Lover and the insanely over-played Get Lucky. Neither track seems to fit into the set, making it a bit disjointed.

The band are at their best when performing their own brand of easy-listening pop rock. This is also when the crowd are at their most responsive; This Love, the band’s breakthrough hit, could have been an opportunity for Levine to rest his voice as his vocals were drowned out by the crowd. Moves Like Jagger gets the crowd on their feet with confetti cannons adding to the party atmosphere, while an acoustic rendition of She Will Be Loved broke some hearts as tears were spotted in the audience.

While clearly all talented musicians, you do get the sense that the other members of Maroon 5 lean far too heavily on Levine’s sex appeal. For a band that has been touring large venues across the world for over a decade their stage presence leaves a lot to be desired. It really is “The Adam Show”.

If tonight is anything to go by, it would be impossible to attend a Maroon 5 show and not leave with a smile on your face. They have the tunes. They have the talent. They have one of the best front men of the decade.