Maroon 5 on stage at the Greek Theatre (Photo by Rebecca Buddingh)

Opening for the band was Ry Cuming, an up-and-coming artist from Australia who released his first CD earlier this year. Cuming played an extremely impressive set to a crowd full of people who didn’t seem to be familiar with his name prior to the show. However, he had them clapping and cheering for him by the end. 

The next opener was OneRepublic who played, quite possibly, more songs than they should have for an opening act. Though they seemed to draw the crowd’s approval, I personally was not very impressed. 

After what seemed like the longest two hours, Maroon 5 took the stage, opening with the first single off their new CD, “Misery.” Lead singer Adam Levine was a ball of energy, running and jumping around the stage, all while wowing the crowd with his amazing vocals. 

Levine seemed incredibly happy to be performing in Los Angeles, where the band was formed when the original members were merely teenagers in the 1990s. 

The band’s set included a diverse selection of songs from all three of their albums: Songs About Jane, It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, and Hands All Over.

However, the crowd seemed most responsive to Songs About Jane, the band’s first album that was released in 2002. “This Love,” “She Will Be Loved,” and “Sunday Morning” (all from that first CD) were definitely the crowd favorites.

Though they played very few songs (4 or 5) from their newest album Hands All Over, the audience seemed largely unfamiliar and uninterested with the songs, which I personally feel are some of the band’s best work thus far. 

Levine’s energy and desire to bring the crowd into the show (mostly by giving them parts of songs to sing) kept the performance anything but boring. 

One of the most ironic aspects of the show was that the band didn’t play the title song “Hands All Over,” despite the fact that the show was called the “Hands All Over” Tour.

Overall, the 80-minute set was phenomenal and had the crowd dancing and singing along almost the entire time. 

Other than the show being slightly shorter than I would have liked, Maroon 5’s musical talent and Adam Levine’s incredible vocal abilities made it well worth the ticket price. 

To reach staff reporter Rebecca Buddingh, click here.

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