IT’S hard to say where Adam Levine lost me, but it may have been when the Maroon 5 mastermind tried to start a sing-along by requesting that the Madison Square Garden crowd pretend to be pirates while he donned the captain’s hat.
As Jerry Seinfeld pleaded in the infamous “puffy shirt” episode: “But I don’t want to be a pirate.”
Still, it was ho, ho, ho and a bottle of hum on Wednesday as the house-turned-choir joined in with their hero – and the girls outnumbered the guys 3 to 1.
While Levine’s crisp high tenor vocals, chiseled good looks and buff physique didn’t do much for the guys, who seemed to be there mostly as escorts, the singer generated chaos with the ladies.
It was as if he was the second coming of Elvis after a dip in Timberlake.
Where the tastes of XX and XY chromosomes converged was when Kanye West made a surprise guest appearance, with a freestyle rap on the new song “Nothing Lasts Forever” off of M5’s CD “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long.”
West lent the tune grit that was MIA from many of the other crowd-pleasing smoothies in the band’s two-hour set, such as “This Love” and “She Will Be Loved.”
At this performance, there was plenty of instrumental noodling that extended M5’s radio hits – yet even in those tunes, the jams had a very practiced feel.
As with most rock bands playing their first headlining MSG gig, Maroon 5 was visibly proud and excited about the show.
This mood carried over to the fans who were thrilled to be there with them. The audience rarely sat; even during Levine’s power ballads, they screamed their approval of the songs and lust for the singer.
While this band isn’t for every guy, Levine’s guitar work was impressive, even if you weren’t feeling the animal magnetism of Levine as a frontman.
Who knew he could shred a riff on electric six-string?