Maroon 5 finally kicked off a new tour last night in Auburn, Washington — their first since before the pandemic — in support of their new album, JORDI.  That moment couldn’t come soon enough for guitarist James Valentine, who told ABC Audio recently that the whole online concert thing just didn’t cut it for him.

“We did do one virtual concert, and it just…really made me miss the audience,” James says, referring to the band’s American Express UNSTAGED Live show back in June.

“I felt like when I was watching back the performance, I was like, ‘Oh, man!'” he laughs. “Like, I just seemed really stiff, really robotic. I really feed off the energy of the audience for my performance!”

Regarding playing live shows with Maroon 5, James notes, “That’s why we do this. That’s why I got addicted to playing music in the first place, was performing in front of people, and it’s really a communal experience that it has to take place in person.”

He adds, “I mean, going to these different cities and then sharing this unique one-time experience in that room, moving those molecules around, like, that’s that’s what makes concerts so special. And it just doesn’t translate through Zoom.”

The tour is set to wrap up on October 8 and includes four stadium shows.  At those shows — in Hershey, Pennsylvania; Chicago; Boston; and Los Angeles — Maroon 5 will be joined by special guest Ava Max.

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