On this round of arena shows, Maroon 5 [ tickets ] fans can expect a healthy dose of new songs and few, if any, of the covers for which the pop band has become known.

"We're sort of known for playing cover songs and it was because we had no choice on the first tour," guitarist James Valentine said during a recent teleconference. "We only had one album's worth of material, so we had to start throwing in some other people's songs. We're just excited that we have enough songs to make a set of our own music."

On the same teleconference, lead singer/guitarist Adam Levine added, "We don't want there to be too many bells and whistles because we don't want to detract from the music. That's obviously really important to us. We're going to stretch out our show a little bit and do things that we didn't do last time."

That creative exploration would be on par with Maroon 5's sophomore collection, "It Won't Be Soon Before Long." The album's first single, "Makes Me Wonder," made the largest jump to No. 1 in the history of The Billboard Hot 100 chart, moving from No. 64 to No. 1. The move was fueled by digital sales of 243,500 downloads and a No. 1 debut on the Hot Digital Songs chart. The album is the follow-up to Maroon 5's 2002 debut, "Songs About Jane."

Even though headlining behind a lone album was a tough predicament, Maroon 5's members still have fond memories. For example, opening for The Rolling Stones at Detroit's Comerica Park was more than notable.

"That was an amazing experience," Valentine said. "They're our idols and it was amazing to see. We had the opportunity to meet them all backstage. They were so gracious. We were led around by Ronnie Wood to each member's dressing room and you could see each member's personalities in the little areas. Keith Richards' backstage area was just a bar."

There's going to be a bit of competition on this leg of Maroon 5's arena tour as Sweden's The Hives are scheduled to be the opening act.

"We love The Hives," Levine said. "They're a great band and we wanted to get a really good, energetic, amazing live act. There's often discrepancies between records and live shows, and you really never know who's a genuinely good band. They are just so great, literally. I think they're best suited for playing live, and that's what the show's about so we wanted to get the best one out there."

Valentine added, "It's going to raise the bar for us every night because they're going to be really tough to follow. So I think it will force us to step up and bring our A game."