Green Eyes

Maroon 5.....Birmingham O2 Academy.....20/02/2011

We were lucky enough to get tickets to see American rock band, Maroon 5: one of our favourite artists!

Vicky 4 Adam

As you can see from my heading, I do indeed love Adam Levine! Throughout the gig I was taking pictures of him, like the one published with this post. Dom kept saying I was drooling....but I wasn't....honest! ;-)

After waiting 90 minutes in the bitterly cold streets of Birmingham we were finally let into the venue. The O2 Academy is a very cosy venue, but then I am a huge fan of intimate gigs, as it allows you to get closer to the artist and the atmosphere is always electric.

People tend to think that support acts are a disappointment - after all they are supporting a huge band or artist and therefore are not always good enough to have their own sell-out tour. However, Sara Bareilles and her band were amazing! She may have only had one memorable mainstream hit, 'Love Song' back in 2007, but she has proved that she is a talented singer-songwriter and pianist. Towards the end of her set, she also performed an amazing rendition of Coldplay's 'Yellow' (my favourite ever Coldplay song) and she made it her own...in fact you could only tell what song it was by the lyrics!

Maroon 5 were simply outstanding! Adam Levine looked very hot in his jeans and white t-shirt......mmmmm....*cough cough* OK so back to the review. They did a great mix of songs from all three of their albums. They did fantastic creative endings to each song which really showcased their true 'rock' roots. The band were energetic and raring to go from the off, and despite a minor hitch with Adam's guitar mid-song, their performance was amazing. As with all bands, the audience expects an encore and as the thousands of us stamped our feet and screamed continuously for 2 or 3 minutes, the guys returned to the stage. My prediction to Dom before the gig that the final song of their encore being 'Sunday Morning' was bang on the money (I wish I'd bet him a tenner now!)

Maroon 5 are a truly awesome band, and a thousand times better live! I would definitely not hesitate to see them in concert again, even if it's just to see Adam in his white t-shirt!

Dom's Review

I went with Vicky to see Maroon 5 at the 02 Arena in Birmingham on 20th February. It was Vicky's idea to go see them, but we've both been fans of them for several years. I've liked them ever since they released their debut album Songs About Jane.

As the venue is right in the centre of Birmingham, then we needed to find a nearby car park (some of the bigger ones are very expensive), and make sure we could find the venue in plenty of time. Birmingham is not the easiest city to navigate your way around, even with a Sat Nav and navigator.

Once we'd found our car park (courtesy of Vicky) we only had a very short walk to the venue. In fact, in terms of proximity to the venue, and value for money (£2.20), it would have been difficult to have found a better car park. Kudos to Vicky for such a great find!

Even though we'd arrived in plenty of time, there was already a sizeable queue forming. We queued outside for well over an hour, by which time Vicky was shivering with cold, as were many other people. Thank goodness when they eventually opened the doors and let us in.

The venue wasn't as large as I had anticipated. Having previously been to the National Indoor Arena and the NEC, I thought it would be bigger. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't. In my experience, the smaller venues are more conducive to better acoustics, and to getting a better view of the band playing.

The band are much heavier and rockier live than they are on their records. While they are still true to their records, they definitely turn it up a lot more on the stage. The guitars have a much heavier sound live, and the rhythm section (bass guitar and drums) have a much bigger part to play, as they are much higher in the mix. I could feel the drummer's kick drum, never mind hear it. The drummer Matt Flynn is certainly energetic, adding to the hard edged live sound they deliver.

As soon as they came on the stage, the audience erupted. They launched into their first song which was Misery. The singer Adam Levine is a super confident front man, and totally owns the stage when he's performing. He used the entire stage and has a commanding stage presence.

They played all the favourites, and even a couple of cover songs, such as Tina Turner's 'What's Love Got To Do With It'. This went down really well with the audience, and gave me ample opportunity to sing along very badly. I sang along very badly to most of the songs in fact! Another song that went down really well with the audience was 'She Will Be Loved'.

The band gelled really well, and gave a faultless performance. The full set list is for the evening is here:

Misery
If I Never See Your Face Again
Harder To Breathe
Hands All Over
The Sun
Never Gonna Leave This Bed
Secret/What's Love Got To Do With It (Tina Turner cover)
Let's Stay Together (Al Green cover)
She Will Be Loved
Wake Up Call
Stutter
This Love

Encore:

Makes Me Wonder
Sunday Morning

This was a great performance by a very talented band, who gave their fans a great evening's entertainment. I'll definitely want to see them the next time they tour.