Little Rebellion Music

On Wednesday, August 17, Train and Maroon 5 took over the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN for one of the most entertaining nights of the summer!

**While written for elsewhere, and clearly not within the usual remit of this website, I have said previously UCN will cover any music which moves us and so I am including this here as well. And after all, there was a big country star on stage…**

When needing a little escape from everyday life, there is nothing more effective than great live music. The radio station contests outside provided much fun ahead of the show and I also had a nice chat with helpful Maroon 5 crew-member Steven (thanks again!). There was a lot of excitement around and I was clearly not the only one who had been counting down to this evening.

From the neo-soul of the Songs about Jane album to the disco-rock of current hit ‘Moves Like Jagger,’ Maroon 5 has one thing that binds all the material together: passion. Right from the first few notes – accompanied by deafening cheers from the sell-out crowd – tidal waves of energy relentlessly rolled off the stage. With only one quiet(er) song in the set (‘Won’t Go Home without You’), the quintet ripped through their mega-hits at breakneck speed. The pace and life-force in these songs was at times close to overwhelming and you could almost literally see the audience trying to catch its breath. Particularly contributing to this were smash-hit ‘Misery’ and especially ‘Stutter,’ which may just top my ‘favorites to hear live’-list after this. The entire audience was wrapped up in this performance and even nearly drowned out the band while singing ‘Won’t Go Home without You’ back at them. Watching a lady quite a way past 60 sing along to ‘Wakeup Call’ at the top of her voice was one of the many great moments for me, as well as the fierce Valentine vs Levine guitar duel at the end of that same song. The band’s impassioned performance is made extra spectacular by Adam Levine’s stage presence. He is so much fun to watch! Aside from being incredibly easy on the eyes, he is totally committed to every song, is very genuinely appreciative of the fans, invests every fiber of his being into every single note, and never falters vocally while moving his body in more directions than an Escher painting. In between putting on what might be the most impressive stage performance I have seen (and yes, I have seen the Rolling Stones), he found time to gently ask a girl in the front row to not throw anything on stage and to humorously admonish a passive fan in that same row by reminding her “those seats are expensive so you’d better enjoy yourself.” Announcing it was audience participation time during the closing song, Levine divided the audience in two teams and encouraged one side to sing the words ‘she will be loved’ and the other side ‘I don’t mind spending every day//out on your corner in the pouring rain’ repeatedly. Like a seasoned conductor, he guided both sides to blend together to very beautiful effect. It is not often that a band really makes me feel privileged just to be in the room. This was so very impressive!

Not being nearly as familiar with Train’s material as many people in the crowd (they achieved fame here while I was living in Europe), this show was my chance to be won over too. After the incredibly entertaining display which lit up the Bridgestone Arena, I am definitely adding this band to my must-see-again list! The set was at times in danger of becoming the Pat Monahan show as he sure does know how to command a stage and how to please a crowd. After accepting a cowboy hat from a fan (“now, this is a serious hat!”), it took just one signal and the band switched to a countrified arrangement. For ‘She’s on Fire,’ he called up about every girl within reach and dubbed them “The Trainettes”. The resulting sing-along prompted the instruction to the wider audience that “if you don’t know the words, please just make some shit up”. A few cover songs were thrown into the mix of which ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ was a particularly impressive collaborative effort between all the musicians on stage. Monahan’s flawless performance on that song was unfortunately not brought to ‘Broken Wing’ for which he was joined by Martina McBride. Both are such incredible vocalists but the wish to really show that off resulted in many parts of this song being oversung. Following a rousing rendition of ‘Save Me, San Francisco,’ during which Monahan borrowed a camera from a videographer and turned it onto the crowd making us appear on the big screen, he proposed to the entire arena by singing ‘Marry Me’ while going for a walk all around the floor section. The band had been calling for fans to send in stories and requests for on-stage marriage proposals but the story Nashville got to hear was moving for entirely different reasons. At the end of the song, we were introduced to the Allen family of which the husband lost both legs while disabling an IED in Afghanistan. Hearing Mrs Allen tell the story (after the thunderous applause had quietened down) affected everyone. One man’s shout-out of “You are a hero!” was greeted with more loud cheers and many, including Monahan, were moved to tears. It was a sobering reminder that while we all get to have fun here, there are men and women doing an incredible job under immensely difficult circumstances far away from home. Train closed out their very entertaining set with encores ‘Words,’ monster-hit ‘Drops of Jupiter’ and the appropriate ‘This Ain’t Goodbye.’

Check out photos from the show below. More are posted on our Facebook page!

Maroon 5 set list:
Moves Like Jagger
Harder to Breathe
Sunday Morning
If I Never See Your Face Again
Misery
Makes Me Wonder
The Sun
Won’t Go Home without You
Never Gonna Leave this Bed
Wakeup Call
Stutter
This Love
——————————–
Hands All Over
She Will Be Loved

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Liv Carter

Liv is a career coach for creatives, and the people who work with them.
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.

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