We usually reserve a few words at the end of concert reviews for the opening act, but circumstances dictate a break from tradition. The Hives, Swedish garage rockers who are on tour with American chart toppers Maroon 5, gave a brief master class at the Garden last night. The subject was rocking, and the band's wild circus barker of a frontman, Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, ministered like a madman to swarms of fresh-scrubbed skeptics counting the minutes until the pop stars came on. With a barrage of good humor, stiff riffs, clean hooks, and frantic energy, the Hives turned the impatient concertgoers into shiny-faced devotees. It was as if a 20-minute religious conversion had taken place.
The Hives help Maroon 5 arrive in love
Maroon 5 didn't have to work quite so hard to win over the audience. They arrived in love, and frontman Adam Levine knew it. "Are you turned on yet?" was his version of connecting with a crowd, and if the answer was no, well, it wasn't his fault.
Levine's shamelessness is part of his appeal. He knows what he is - a better-than-decent soul-pop singer with a knack for heart-tugging melodies and real feel for a musical past (Stevie Wonder, Hall & Oates, Phil Collins) whose themes he reweaves into new blockbusters. Levine's like Justin Timberlake at an earlier stage of evolution: glossy and strutting and sexy and safe, aiming for - and expecting - nothing less than total domination.
True to its mission, Maroon 5 performed on a steely set under a corporate-looking band logo. Levine executed each and every funky falsetto lick with businesslike efficiency that occasionally bordered on alacrity. Cold but persuasive, Levine commanded the crowd to sing along on "The Sun," a genuinely joyful anthem from "Songs About Jane," the group's 2002 debut, afterward asking: "Now don't you feel just a little bit sexier?"
There was nothing more to say, apparently. But Maroon 5 is all about the songs, anyway, and tired as some people may be of some of them, it doesn't diminish the winsome charm of "This Love" and "Sunday Morning," or the darker but equally well-built tunes from this year's "It Won't Be Soon Before Long."
Credit is also due for blatant nods to unhip influences. Maroon 5 tucked a few bars of Collins's "In the Air Tonight" into "Secret," the band's moody soft-rocker, and it was almost disappointing when they tried to reclaim cred by quoting the guitar riff from the White Stripes "Icky Thump" during "Shiver," a fist-pumping new anthem. Guess which one they wore better?
Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com.
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