I'm putting this up for those who are looking to keep pushing and milk an album. Stay patient and stay true to your dedicated fans, fuck selling out. You market that quality music and keep doing shows, exposing yourself to new fans, you will get what you deserve.
SFGate
REVIEW
Maroon 5's dedicated fans get close just as band grows bigger than big
Aidin Vaziri, Chronicle Pop Music Critic
Monday, June 4, 2007
Maroon 5 played a sold-out show at the Great American Mus... Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, the band's most recognizab...
It took nearly two years for anybody to notice Maroon 5's debut album, "Songs About Jane." So it was probably with some relief last week that the Los Angeles band's much anticipated follow-up, "It Won't Be Soon Before Long," went straight to No. 1, simultaneously becoming the second-biggest-selling chart entry of the year and most popular new release of all time at the iTunes store.
The group should have been tipped off after its 2002 predecessor went on to sell 10 million copies, earn a pair of Grammies and launch a slew of R&B-slick rock hits. But even that, plus an appearance on the "American Idol" finale, wasn't enough to convince the guys in Maroon 5 to head directly to the arenas with the new release rather than slum it with a six-date club tour in the hopes of building some extra buzz.
It's just as well that the band is taking it slow, as its most dedicated fans were thrilled with the prospect of seeing it crammed onto one of San Francisco's smallest venues on Friday, with a sold-out show at the Great American Music Hall.
The wolf whistles and squeals started before the members even marked their arrival with the pounding "Harder to Breathe" and continued more than an hour later when they scurried off with the one-two punch of "She Will Be Loved" and "This Love."
You would have been hard-pressed to find more than a dozen people in the room who could actually identify any of the hairy men onstage other than nasally singer Adam Levine, but that didn't stop them from furiously elbowing each other out of the way in the hopes of grabbing one of the short-shorts the frontman flung out bearing the band's logo.
In between the old favorites came a handful of songs from "It Won't Be Soon Before Long," basically the soul-pop confections of the last disc updated with extra fanfare. The live show still felt a bit like a work in progress, so at times Maroon 5 plodded when it should have been gliding, paying too much mind to its rock past and not enough to its chart-topping present.
Fortunately, Levine's tabloid exploits with the likes of Jessica, Lindsay and Paris transformed the heartbroken verses that swept through the first album into pointed kiss-offs on new tunes including "Wake Up Call" and first single "Makes Me Wonder," as in, "And it really makes me wonder/ If I ever gave a f -- about you."
Sure, it sounded fine standing just a few inches away. But imagine how really great it will sound in front of 10,000 howling lunatics.
E-mail Aidin Vaziri at [email protected].
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/04/DDGN1Q64IB1.DTL
SFGate
REVIEW
Maroon 5's dedicated fans get close just as band grows bigger than big
Aidin Vaziri, Chronicle Pop Music Critic
Monday, June 4, 2007
Maroon 5 played a sold-out show at the Great American Mus... Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, the band's most recognizab...
It took nearly two years for anybody to notice Maroon 5's debut album, "Songs About Jane." So it was probably with some relief last week that the Los Angeles band's much anticipated follow-up, "It Won't Be Soon Before Long," went straight to No. 1, simultaneously becoming the second-biggest-selling chart entry of the year and most popular new release of all time at the iTunes store.
The group should have been tipped off after its 2002 predecessor went on to sell 10 million copies, earn a pair of Grammies and launch a slew of R&B-slick rock hits. But even that, plus an appearance on the "American Idol" finale, wasn't enough to convince the guys in Maroon 5 to head directly to the arenas with the new release rather than slum it with a six-date club tour in the hopes of building some extra buzz.
It's just as well that the band is taking it slow, as its most dedicated fans were thrilled with the prospect of seeing it crammed onto one of San Francisco's smallest venues on Friday, with a sold-out show at the Great American Music Hall.
The wolf whistles and squeals started before the members even marked their arrival with the pounding "Harder to Breathe" and continued more than an hour later when they scurried off with the one-two punch of "She Will Be Loved" and "This Love."
You would have been hard-pressed to find more than a dozen people in the room who could actually identify any of the hairy men onstage other than nasally singer Adam Levine, but that didn't stop them from furiously elbowing each other out of the way in the hopes of grabbing one of the short-shorts the frontman flung out bearing the band's logo.
In between the old favorites came a handful of songs from "It Won't Be Soon Before Long," basically the soul-pop confections of the last disc updated with extra fanfare. The live show still felt a bit like a work in progress, so at times Maroon 5 plodded when it should have been gliding, paying too much mind to its rock past and not enough to its chart-topping present.
Fortunately, Levine's tabloid exploits with the likes of Jessica, Lindsay and Paris transformed the heartbroken verses that swept through the first album into pointed kiss-offs on new tunes including "Wake Up Call" and first single "Makes Me Wonder," as in, "And it really makes me wonder/ If I ever gave a f -- about you."
Sure, it sounded fine standing just a few inches away. But imagine how really great it will sound in front of 10,000 howling lunatics.
E-mail Aidin Vaziri at [email protected].
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/04/DDGN1Q64IB1.DTL
