Maroon5, Gavin DeGraw & Marc Broussard

I can sum up last Friday’s Maroon5 show in one word: Damn. That’s it. Review’s over. Now flip to the back and read your horoscope. Just kidding. If I did that, the editors would poke me in the eye with a pointed stick, so I’m going to elaborate on the “damn.”
Marc Broussard was the first to take the stage with an acoustically driven take on conventional rock that really connected with the audience. It says something very good about your performance when you can keep the attention of a crowd that has, for the most part, never heard your music before. Mr. Broussard did exactly that. With hook-laden songs backed by a talented band and carried by his unusually powerful voice, he didn’t have any trouble making sure that the quickly growing sea of people were enjoying themselves. The girls danced, the guys that came with them flailed randomly, hoping to fool onlookers into thinking they had rhythm, and a good time was had by all. After an extended finale of acappella vocal gymnastics, Marc thanked everyone and then threw his hat out into the crowd, causing the girls in attendance to scream pointlessly as they reached for it. Ironically, I think that it was one of the eight guys there that night that ended up catching it.
Next to grace the stage was Gavin DeGraw. In a word, he was flamboyant. Is that a good thing? Well, if nothing else, it made his show memorable. The absurdly happy frontman seemed to connect very strongly with certain groups of people in the audience, while barely being able to keep the attention of others. Really, that’s a sign of someone that’s on to something and word around the campfire is that he’s coming up fast in the music industry. Through a set that could be described as slightly unconventional rock with a handle on basic songwriting sensibility, he made sure to give his best for everyone that was feeling the music. The highlight of his set had to be his cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” It’s hard to dislike a song that gets every female in the room ready to boink.
After Gavin came a long intermission. After the long intermission came R. Kelly. I should probably clarify that. R. Kelly didn’t really come out on stage. “Ignition” pounded over the PA, which actually made for a very cool intro as Maroon5 came out and casually picked up their instruments. As the child molester’s music faded, the band launched into “Not Coming Home” and the crowd attempted to deafen me with their screaming. They nearly succeeded. With music that managed to be both gritty and honest without losing sight of the elements of truly good songwriting, Maroon5 kept the crowd absolutely captivated throughout their entire set. Highlights included “Harder To Breathe,” “This Love” and a new song they played called “Wasted Years” that was incredible.
In conclusion, damn.
– Dana Hocking
– Photos by Pamela Morgan

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