Alas, she was seated 11 rows away at PB10. Which wasn't too bad actually. She had reasonably good "landscape" view of the entire stage and luckily enough, there weren't many tall people standing in front of her.
The last time Maroon 5 was here was at the very same venue in 2008. Back then, Red Dot Diva was disappointed by their lack-lustre and brief 60-minute set. After all the anticipation built up for their first visit to the Red Dot Island, fans couldn't help but leave the stadium feeling short-changed.
Red Dot Diva remembers that the band was late coming on stage and then, played their songs straight-up with little frills that night in 2008. Despite lead singer Adam Levine, looking cool and very confident on stage, they had failed to connect with the crowd very much.
They must have learnt something important from that tour.
Maroon 5 has since let their hair (well probably, mostly James Valentine's long blond hair...) loose. They have been having fun engaging their fans worldwide, getting in touch with them constantly through their website, Facebook and Twitter.
And they definitely made good this time round to the fans in Red Dot Island, by performing one of the most fantastic, energetic live concerts Red Dot Diva has attended in the last 3 years or so. Even their time with the local press seemed more light-hearted and playful. (Just view this cute clip from The New Paper here!)
It was only at about 8pm that the crowds started streaming into the Singapore Indoor Stadium and began to fill up the seats in the hall. Red Dot Diva noted that the audience consisted of mainly younger folks - with a fair number of those below 20 years of age and quite a good mix of males and females. She also noted that, unlike the last time, there weren't any giant projector screens for the poor people who were seated towards the back of the stadium. Thank the nommy shirtless gods that she had decided to splurge on the expensive tiks!
Without much fanfare, Maroon 5 appeared on stage at about 8.20 pm or so. Screams from excited fans turned up several notches, as the intro for a rousing version of "Misery" (the 1st single from their latest album "Hands All Over") came on. Lead singer Adam Levine was wearing a plain white tee and tight jeans, like he did back in 2008!
Right from the start, it was clear that the band was in a totally tight mode that night. Maybe they have been in good spirits individually and as a team for quite some time, and they were in that zone where every member was in tune with each other. Any discerning listener could tell the difference. Others could just sense that the live performance was something special.
Most of the songs were definitely funkier improvised versions of their studio cuts. "Harder To Breathe" was a kind of slinky rock-pop variation with a killer groove, and "Give Me A Little More" was a tad more electric guitar-driven and raw.
The crowds just got crazy whenever the favourites came on. No surprises that these were songs like "Make Me Wonder", "Never Gonna Leave This Bed" and "Wake Up Call". When Adam gave a hearty shoutout to Singapore before singing "The Sun", it got even crazier. Most probably because he was moving his sexy hips in that way only he can do while wearing those darn tight jeans of his. Need proof?? Watch the video below!
The band also did a medley of a beautiful smooth acoustic-jazzy version of "Secret" featuring the fantastic keyboard work of PJ Morton. In that song, Red Dot Diva thought Adam's vocals was just like rich melted chocolate. *shiver* Then, unexpectedly, "Secret" segued effortlessly to a cover version of Tina Turner's "What's Love Gotta Do With It". The crowd went WILD!
Then, Adam continued with his merciless, flirtatious ways when he started talking, and said that he has been asked many times before why all his songs are about females. "... Females are incredible. As men we are obsessed with you and write songs about you the rest of our lives and name albums after you." All the straight women in the crowd swooned collectively at that revelation. Regardless if they had their plus ones with them or not.
Which was the reaction that the band probably wanted because the crowd's favouritest songs - "She Will Be Loved" was played next! Not only did the crowd energy surge to another level, Adam split the 6,000-over fans into two sections and as one side sang "She will be loved...", the other sang "I don't mind spending everyday..." at the same time. It was thrilling to see, hear and feel the fans in sync with the band on stage.
To get a feel of how it all went down, Red Dot Diva says one has to check out this wonderful edit of Maroon 5's phenomenal performance of "She Will Be Loved" by I.Z.Reloaded, using videos filmed by various fans - including yours truly:
During their set, the surfer-blond coolness of James Valentine was also the receiving end of many screams and cheers whenever his solid guitar work came to the forefront. The rest - Jesse on keyboards, Michael on bass guitar and Matt fiercely sweating it out on the drums - were content to let Adam to his sexy lead singer thang.
Throughout the night, Adam's singing was as perfect as it could be. He purred through the songs and didn't falter on any of those high notes he's famous for.
And then, all too soon, after singing "This Love" (which was another hit with the fans), the lights dimmed and the band exited the stage. Red Dot Diva's ears were still ringing with the reverberations of the music, and the crowd's energy was still buzzing...
Noooooooooo, this can't be the end. Not yet!!!
"We want more, we want more!" More wolf-whistles and loud screams. The fans urging the band to return to stage for an encore. There was simply too much fan-love which Maroon 5 couldn't resist. So, they hopped back on stage with "Hands All Over Me". And the crowd roared with approval!
By this time, Adam's simple white tee was almost wet through with perspiration.
Yep. Red Dot Diva can't help but notice these things. *g*
They kept the energy up during the encore, even when Adam was introducing the band members. James took the chance to show off his killer electric guitar riffs. But wouldn't stop to let Adam introduce Michael on the bass guitar. He just kept at it, musically-hadouken-ing Adam flat on stage and writhing. Adam pleaded, "James, please stop it! You gotta stop, you're killing me!" James looked mighty pleased and finally relented. Hehehe.
After the band members were properly introduced, they launched into a groovy version of "Sunday Morning" - the last song for their Singapore Indoor Stadium concert. It naturally concluded with a loud, crashing, typical, drum-filled rock song ending.
YEAH!!
A fantastic live performance indeed, Maroon 5!! Come back again, real soon!
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