Concert Review: Maroon 5 At Mohegan Sun

Maroon 5 played before a sold out audience at the Mohegan Sun Arena Friday night. (Nick Caito)

Adam Levine seems at times to be somewhat larger than life.

Perhaps that was the metaphor concert producers were going for with the massive, 100-ish foot tall monitors displaying close ups of the Maroon 5 frontman during their sold-out performance at Mohegan Sun Friday night. He was, very literally, larger than life.

Or maybe it was the metaphor of the tour name itself: “Overexposed.” Between Maroon 5, his hosting work on NBC’s “The Voice,” and his persona, Levine’s name pops up just about everywhere. This was probably the angle they were going for, since the night’s wardrobe was white on white, with white lights and a white stage: in this case, photographically overexposed.

** Click here to see photos from the concert **

An enormous phalanx of video monitors surrounded the back of the stage. Five times the Adam Levine! (Nick Caito)

There’s a fan for every hater, and this one was for the fans. “I say it for every crowd, we have the best jobs in the world,” Levine remarked at one point between songs “… To just play music for people who appreciate it.”

Maroon 5′s undeniably infectious ballots and pop rock diddies were on full display as their frontman bounded and ran across the stage. He easily took advantage of the audience’s affinity for the singalong, parlaying it to have two halves of the arena sing different parts during the encore performance of ‘She Will Be Loved. ‘

The set was punctuated by some great guitar work by James Valentine that isn’t very forward in the band’s recordings. Levine also got a little lost in a few abbreviated guitar solos, closing out the regular set with a quick wall of sound and a few dramatic howls at the end of “This Love.”

There were some lighthearted moments where Adam Levine took control of a camera video feed pumping into the aforementioned wall of monitors. He took this time to introduce the band members and bring the back of the arena “up close because of modern technology!” The frontman’s dress shirt came off during “Harder To Breathe,” about halfway through the set (much to the pleasure of several women in the crowd nearby who continually called for immediate shirt removal. He still had on a sleeveless-t, sorry ladies).

Maroon 5 ended the night with “Moves Like Jagger,” and the promise that they’d be back this summer. (Nick Caito)

Maroon 5 ended the night’s encore with “Moves Like Jagger” and huge blasts of confetti. Bad news for all the haters- the band also promised that they’d be returning this summer.