This week in music: Maroon 5, Shawn Colvin, Muse hit Twin Cities
"The Voice" coach Adam Levine and his bandmates from Maroon 5 stop by Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul Monday for the latest stop in the pop group's 2013 nationwide "Day Light" tour.
Critics along the tour have been fairly impressed with Maroon 5's performances. Masslive.com gave the band a glowing review for their Feb. 23 concert in Connecticut, saying despite Levine's commitments to his NBC reality competition, acting career, a fragrance line and record label, he's clearly committed to his band and gave the show "his all for the duration."
Even when Levine has been under the weather, the show is getting good reviews. Mlive says the Grand Rapids, Mich., show on Feb. 25 was cut short due to Levine's laryngitis, but the group held up as a whole. Their review noted while the singer's "creamy, nasal falsetto might have required more effort than usual, and for the most part, Maroon 5 sounded slick and presentable for the majority of the show."
One of the groups opening for Maroon 5 in the Twin Cities is Owl City, which was formed in Owatonna by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Adam Young.
See the video for the Maroon 5 hit "Won't Go Home Without You" below.
Shawn Colvin, who rose to prominence in the 1990s with her hit albums "Fat City" and "A Few Small Repairs" (which spawned the 1998 Grammy Song of the Year and Record of the Year "Sunny Came Home"), plays a three-night stint at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Colvin's last concert in the Twin Cities was at the Guthrie was a disappointment for Star Tribune music critic Jon Bream, who said in his review that the singer-musician appeared to be "in a haze, never really finding any joy in her performance, never really exposing her personality in conversation, never really shifting out of autopilot."
Longtime English rock trio Muse is scheduled to roll into Target Center on Thursday.
Muse kicked off its tour in January at Staples Center in Los Angeles, and The Hollywood Reporter said the concert "captivated the audience equally with its dynamic musical performance and an impressively extensive light show that continually transformed the stage with an array of moving video screens."
The band's show last Saturday at the Detroit's Joe Louis Arena was praised in a review by the Oakland Press, saying it's "clever staging and inventive lighting and visual effects" bolstered the band's "already muscular amalgam of 70s-style pomp rock (primarily Queen), New Wave and New Romantic, EDM, industrial and the odd touch of goth."
Fargo, N.D., native Jonny Lang is also returning to the Twin Cities for a concert Sunday with fellow blues guitarist Buddy Guy at the State Theatre.The two this week are beginning a new leg of a co-headlining tour that they kicked off in 2012.
The show comes just a year after Guy played a solo gig at the State, leading City Pages to declare, "Whatever elixir Guy's been dialing up, it's keeping the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer lithe, limber and on the prowl."
