Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the industries to take a hit was live music. Maroon 5 was one of many acts who had to postpone their 2020 tour, however on September 7th, 2021, the band’s fans in the DMV finally got to experience it. Carrying the simple title the 2021 Tour, Maroon 5’s eleventh headlining tour was a night of tight musicianship and the pristine falsetto of frontman Adam Levine.
The band opened the show with their 2011 hit “Moves Like Jagger “. While Adam Levine’s dancing didn’t pay proper homage to Mick Jagger, Levine’s stage presence made up for it. From there, the group took it back to the 2002 debut Songs About Jane for a lively performance of “This Love”. Adam Levine then dipped into his features catalog for a performance of “Stereo Hearts”. At this point, I honestly expected Levine and the group to do a medley of Levine’s Hip Hop features. It would have been great to hear Levine sing his verses of Kanye West’s “Touch The Sky”, Ying Yang Twins “Live Again” or Lil Wayne’s “Trust Nobody”. Instead, though, the group kept it moving by performing songs from their seven-album catalog.
Ideally, just about any hit song you wanted to hear, was performed. My night was made when I heard “Sunday Morning”, while my wife was happy when she heard an acoustic version of “Payphone” and my son’s song of the night was “Don’t Wanna Know”. Despite the lukewarm critical response to the group’s latest album Jordi, “Beautiful Mistakes” and “Memories” both came across great live.
My first time seeing Maroon 5 was a fun night out. However, I did have a few complaints. The group’s opening act was Blackbear, and the less said about his performance, the better. Now it could be my forty years of age and my love of real Hip Hop, but whatever Blackbear was doing, just was not for me. On the plus side though, my son seemed to enjoy his performance so I guess that is the silver lining.
For an opening act, I would have much preferred a short opening set by group member PJ Morton, who is an amazingly talented solo artist in his own right. In addition, my favorite Maroon 5 song, “Lost Stars” was not part of the setlist. Nevertheless though, Maroon 5’s DMV stop on their latest tour was a great way to spend a few hours.
Final Grade : B+
From his early days in the family group Wings of Faith, Mr. Gill was born to make music. However, as R&B fans know, Johnny Gill’s initial release with Atlantic Records failed to make a significant impact when it first came out. The 1983 self-titled debut showed a strong voice struggling to adapt to a studio that couldn’t properly utilize its power.
My introduction to Myron was with the song “Sistas” on the “Eddie” soundtrack in the summer of 1996. Before setting up his solo album, Myron would write classics for Mya and Dru Hill. “Destiny” was written by Myron and Tyrice Jones, and the latter was also producing. Set to a sample of Herbie Hancock’s “Come Running to Me”, the song explores how fate governs the formation of connections between people meant to exist from the beginning.
Music producers transitioning to a solo album is common in the music industry. For this week’s Second Listen Sunday, I want to revisit Sean Garrett’s solo debut, “Turbo 919,” released in 2008.
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