The Maroon 5 World Tour 2015 Live in Bangkok concert was sold out almost instantly after ticket sales opened (to be precise, it was three minutes). This was a sign guaranteeing that the gig would be packed with throngs of loyal fans, and that was exactly what I witnessed on Monday night at Impact Arena.
Maroon 5 played Bangkok three years ago, and yet the enthusiastic reception on Monday showed they're still hot property here, with frontman Adam Levine the chief attraction. In fact, Maroon 5 played our city twice this week, with the second show on Tuesday added in after unprecedented ticket demand.
The show was 30 minutes late in starting, but then the six members of the band -- Levine, guitarist James Valentine, bassist Mickey Madden, drummer Matt Flynn and keyboardists Jesse Carmichael and P.J. Morton -- made their grand entrance and kicked off the wild night with a howling sound: the first song could be nothing else but their latest hit Animal. The hall instantly went crazy. Maroon 5 followed that up with a non-stop mash-up of six hits including One More Night, Stereo Hearts and Harder To Breathe.
Witnessing them live was fulfilling but somehow I didn't really feel Levine's energy at the beginning. Perhaps the non-stop openers required too much power for him to keep things rolling fast. However, the show picked up momentum and Levine developed into fine form later on.
Throughout the show, the singer interacted with audience screams by running from one side of the stage to the other. The hall also went wild, predictably, when Levine unbuttoned his blue plaid shirt that he wore over the white plain T-shirt, wiped off his sweat with it then threw it into the audience. Talk about being a sex object!
I was somewhat surprised by the fact that some in the audience were not really into the concert as much as I expected, considering how fast tickets sold out. There were a few times when Levine had to enthusiastically encourage those in the hall not to sit still -- that seems the case with many concerts here. Many fans did respond to his calls and stood up to the beat of the songs.
It was quite late in the show when Levine delivered the band's 2004 breakthrough hit This Love, which rocked the crowd. He started the song without any backing music and asked the hall to sing along, and as voices from the audience reverberated, the rest of the band members returned to their instruments and the music boomed out to the max. It was here when Levine also brought out his shocking pink guitar to finish off the song.
More hits followed: Sunday Morning and Payphone were amazing, before the gig ended perfectly with Daylight where audience members turned on their mobile flashlights, decorating the hall.
Of course, that wasn't the real ending. Levine and Valentine returned to the stage with acoustic guitars and began the encore with Lost Stars -- the hit from the movie Begin Again -- followed by She Will Be Loved, where the whole band came back to continue the rest of the song. Moves Like Jagger and Sugar were the last two numbers that impressively finished off the night.
The encore lasted long enough to give a satisfying adrenalin rush. Still, the entire concert seemed to be on the short side; the total length of the show was just one-and-a-half hours, and naturally I was craving for more.
A short note on Dirty Loops, a Swedish jazz fusion trio that were the support act. It was my first time hearing their songs, but their performance was captivating.
Above all, it was an entertaining night. Even though it took time for the band to win the hearts of the audience, they managed to capture ours at last. And I bet their fans are already looking forward to their return, and probably more shirt-off moments.
Dirty Loops.
