5 Best Moments From Maroon 5’s Hits-Packed Las Vegas Residency
Two decades of hits, a poignant tribute to the band’s late manager & a love note to Usher are highlights from the Dolby Live at Park MGM concert.
Adam Levine performs during night 1 of Maroon 5’s M5LV Las Vegas residency on Friday, March 24, 2023Travis Schneider
With two decades of steady pop radio hits under their belts, Maroon 5 are a perfect fit for a Las Vegas residency, breezing through a tight 20-song setlist during night 2 of their Dolby Live at Park MGM opening weekend on Saturday (March 25).
Adam Levine drives the energy of the hour-and-a-half show — never staying in one place for too long as he constantly moves across the stage and darts closer to the crowd on an X-shaped catwalk, wearing a series of tattoo-baring outfits (or just no shirt at all). But it’s truly a full-band showcase, with spotlights on founding guitarist James Valentine’s shredding solos, a jamming song led by keyboardist PJ Morton, and a trio of brass players adding vibrant horns throughout.
Even if you don’t know Maroon 5’s catalog front and back, the most casual pop fan will recognize the Billboard Hot 100 mainstays that make up the setlist, including a host of collaborations that Levine takes on solo, whether he’s singing the Christina Aguilera verse on “Moves Like Jagger,” pulling double-duty on the SZA duet “What Lovers Do,” or performing rap-free versions of songs with Wiz Khalifa (“Payphone”) or Gym Class Heroes (“Stereo Hearts”). The one rapper we did hear on Saturday night was Cardi B, whose intro to the seven-week Hot 100 No. 1 “Girls Like You” was broadcast ahead of the second track of a three-song encore.
What else can you expect from Maroon 5’s new M5LV residency? Below, find Billboard’s five favorite moments from opening weekend.
The Greatest-Hits Setlist
Maroon 5 have 32 Hot 100 hits — including four No. 1s and 15 top 10s — so they had a deep bench of music to choose from. In the end, the 20-song setlist was heavy on their hits, aside from two covers (we’ll get to those in a second) and one showcase for keyboardist PJ Morton, a Grammy-winning R&B singer/songwriter in his own right. The result was a nonstop string of songs that anyone who has listened to pop radio in the last 20 years would instantly recognize regardless of their level of fandom, which made for the perfect communal Vegas dance party in the crowd. (According to setlist.fm, there were a couple of small changes between the first two nights, with the night 1 crowd getting the 2017 Future collab “Cold” and 2012’s ‘Daylight,” while night 2 included the 2017 SZA team-up “What Lovers Do.”)
A Pair of Sky-High Covers
Levine picked two cover songs tailor-made to show off his famous falsetto, starting with “I Wanna Be Your Lover” by Prince (whose “Kiss” was also the last song fans heard before the concert kicked off) and ending the pre-encore setlist with the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive.”
The Tribute to Their Late Manager
The most poignant moment of the night was when the band remembered their late manager Jordan “Jordi” Feldstein, a childhood friend of Levine’s and the brother of Jonah Hill and Beanie Feldstein who died in 2017 at age 40 from a heart attack. A video package showed photos of Levine and Feldstein as small kids and then in their early days as a band guided by Feldstein’s management.
Ahead of playing “Memories,” their 2019 tribute to Feldstein that peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100, Levine explained the mission behind the track. “My goal is that every crowd who sees this residency fully understands that that song is about that man right there,” he said. “And that’s what that song is about for us. But what I think is so beautiful about the song, as it gained popularity over the years, it meant something different, it’s for a different person for everyone who loved the song. So it’s an extremely special song that we can have as a band that we can share with everybody. So we just want to say thank you for sharing it with us. Sometimes it’s not the easiest thing, but it makes it all that much more easy when we share it together.”
The In-Crowd Moment & A Note to Usher
When Levine and guitarist James Valentine emerged to kick off the three-song encore, they weren’t onstage anymore; they were sauntering through the crowd, between the first and second sections of fans in the lower level. They ended up settling into a particular spot in the aisle that just happened to have a small platform for the frontman to stand on. Levine acknowledged that the space was originally created for Usher’s Vegas residency but that he would borrow for the night. He even brought out a Sharpie to leave Usher a note for when he returns to the Dolby Live theater for new residency dates in April.
“What should I say?” he asked the crowd before beginning his permanent-marker message. “‘Dear Usher: You’re so, so, so, so, so, so cute. Thanks for letting me use your little stumpy stair thing. I love you and you’re sexy. Love, Justin Timberlake.’ Perfect! I really did sign it Justin Timberlake.” We’ll see if Usher gets the message next month, As Levine said: “If they erase it I’ll be pissed.”
‘This One’s Always for You, B’
On Saturday night, Levine made a small shout-out to his wife of almost nine years, model Behati Prinsloo, introducing the 2013 top 10 Hot 100 hit “Love Somebody” by saying, “This one’s always for you, B.” During Friday’s opening night, Prinsloo and the couple’s three children were in the building, with Levine saying onstage, “They’re everything, all that matters to me in the whole world. I love you guys. My kids have never been up this late in their entire f—ing lives. They’re falling asleep.”
