Adam Levine: Manila is a very musical place

MANILA, Philippines - Filipinos as audience may be hard-to-please. But once they like what they’re watching and start singing along, you can expect to hear a choir.

Adam Levine, frontman of Maroon 5, not only led his group to a rocking performance that delighted thousands of Pinoys at SMX Convention Center last May 23. He also let loose a little praise that reiterated Juan dela Cruz’s natural talent for singing.

“There’s something very melodic about you guys. This is a very musical place,” he told the packed venue before he sang an acoustic take of She Will Be Loved and guided everyone in a vocal jam displaying that pretty-sounding unison singing Manila locals are capable of.

The energetic and high-pitched Levine, sweaty and sweet all throughout the show, added, “You’re doing a good job. Everyone can sing so well here. Keep it up.”

The Pinoy ego-boosting claim surely struck a chord in the hearts of the night’s diverse audience that once more proved Maroon 5’s wide fan base. But that only served as a footnote for a night that provided an extremely good repertoire and nice rapport between artist and fans.

Seldom you can find a concert where the crowd is a mix of young and old, rockers and sentimentals. It was a testament to the kind of universally appealing catalogue Maroon 5 has accumulated over the years. That should make them probably the finest pop band act in today’s generation that hardly comes out with real good hooks.  

To stress the point, nearly all in the 16-song line-up delivered by Levine’s gang was welcomed like certified hits. Remarkably every after three songs, there’s a major, major big song.

Patty Ragaza, consumer sector manager for Imation-South Asia and Mylene Ferrer-Wollboldt, Imation marketing manager for the Philippines, (extreme left and right, respectively) award the Maroon 5 concert tickets to winners of TDK Life on Record promo.

Many girls may have held their breath watching the sexy frontman establish his skirt-dropping body language while performing Harder To Breathe, the night’s third song. Two numbers after that, some of them wanted to go home with the man with a cute “Los Angeles” tattoo on his arm, especially that he was singing Won’t Go Home Without You.

She Will Be Loved came out at nine. Then the band’s breakthrough hit, This Love, burst off the big speakers as the 12th number, cued by Levine asking, “You want some more Manila?”

They left the stage after the 13th song and came back with three more encore numbers which put the deliciously groovy Makes Me Wonder as song No. 15. Whether the line-up listing intentionally had a pattern or not, the “threes” ensured there was no way the crowd’s high energy could lay back. Three points!

Actually, Maroon 5 making sure they perform their hits kept everyone in high spirit. Whatever pattern discernible didn’t stand a chance for die-hard fans. No exaggeration but there was practically no room for fillers to fit into the repertoire. The group opened with Misery, how ironic the title is since it simply put the highly-anticipating crowd in high hopes, and If I Never See Your Face Again. Wake-Up Call and their version of If I Ain’t Got You were in the middle of the pack, while Sunday Morning served as last song for a memorable Monday night.  

Earlier in the day, Maroon 5 appeared in a presscon at Shangri-La Edsa Hotel and promoted their latest CD Hands All Over (released by MCA Music) featuring Stutter, Never Gonna Leave This Bed and Give A Little More.

Maroon 5 went to Manila in August 2007. They did give some more last Monday.