Maroon 5, Adam Levine Score High Marks Despite Controversial ‘V’ Tour

Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine knows how to put on a great show. And critics are responding despite a few bumps along the road of their power-packed “V” Tour.

“For all of Levine’s lucrative side gigs,” the Tampa Bay Times writes in a glowing review, “keeping parties spinning with Maroon 5 remains the job he does best.” The writer continues, describing Adam as “in motion all night, skipping like a spirit squad captain around the futuristically lit stage, then out on an arena-spanning and not-at-all-phallic arrow jutting across the Amalie floor.”

The Michigan Daily agrees, also showering Maroon 5 and frontman Adam Levine with praise for their high energy performance.

“Three minutes and six seconds into Maroon 5’s latest release “Animals,” heartthrob Adam Levine successfully proves me wrong, letting out a wolf-cry that makes girls squeal from California to Colorado. It’s hot, animalistic, carnal and — fortunately for the band — rakes in over 157 million hits on YouTube.”

Even not-as-stellar reviews can’t help but lavish praise on Levine and Maroon 5 as they prance about stage, capturing the attention of all those lucky enough to be in attendance. The Dallas Morning News summed up the band’s performance as “foolproof” despite Adam being only in “decent vocal form” for the “V” Tour opener.

And considering the band has been at the center of not one, not two, but three controversies in the previous 12 months, not hitting the lower registers for a couple of bars is the least of their concerns. It started with the controversial video for “Animals” late last summer, as reported by Inquistr. In it, the Maroon 5 front man had been accused of glorifying stalking against women and was protested by women’s groups such as RAINN. At the same time Levine and company also received unlikely support from PETA for portraying the shocking and often bloody world of the meat packing industry.

Next, Maroon 5 released the video for their latest hit single “Sugar” in which Adam and the rest of the guys, including guitarist Jesse Carmichael and drummer Ryan Dusick, seemingly crashed many unsuspecting couples’ weddings. This of course, was later accused of being a hoax, and the controversy swirled for several days around whether or not the “Sugar” wedding crashes were in fact staged.

Finally, the Maroon 5 “V” Tour was ambushed by Live Nation protesters when it made its way to Atlanta this week, as reported by Inquistr. The protest revolved around stagehands working for Live Nation who cited poor working conditions, low wages, and lack of benefits as the reason behind their protests.

Despite all the controversies however, both “Animals” and “Sugar” cracked the Top 5 Billboard charts and racked up millions of page views on YouTube. And Adam Levine and the rest of the Maroon 5 band continue to press on as one of the hottest and most critically lauded live acts in the country.

[Maroon 5/Adam Levine photo credit: Christopher Polk / Getty Images]