Once Daya wrapped up her set (neither LPX's set nor Daya's set was very long; I think that LPX's set was only six or seven songs, and Daya's set was only eight or so songs), we waited a while for Marina, but I have been to shows at which I waited a lot longer, so it was definitely a bearable wait. (Besides, I had waited years to see her, so this was nothing in comparison.) Once Diamandis did come out on stage, however, opening with "Handmade Heaven" (the lead single from her fourth studio album LOVE + FEAR), my heart was skipping beats, and I got emotional several times throughout the show, in surreal disbelief that this woman I had admired (and, of course, still do admire) for so long, whose music had changed my life, was practically right in front of me. I especially got emotional and started crying after her third number "Primadonna" because it was the first song from her second album Electra Heart that she played, and as I mentioned, that album is very special to me because it really helped me through a lot. That was when it really hit me what I was experiencing, and when I broke out into tears, my friend gave me a hug. Another number that had me really emotional - that felt almost like a spiritual experience in fact - was "I Am Not a Robot" because, as mentioned previously, that was the first song that I had ever heard of hers, so it felt like such a personal treat to see and hear her perform it live. Something else that lent to that aforementioned feeling of the concert feeling nearly like a spiritual experience is the fact that nearly everyone in the crowd seemed to feel similarly; you could just feel the emotional energy permeating through the crowd. Nearly the whole crowd passionately and enthusiastically sang along to nearly every song (with very few exceptions) as if nearly every song were a well known hit, and it's rare that I ever see and feel that kind of energy at a show. After performing a very stripped back and raw version of her Electra Heart song "Teen Idle" on the piano, for example, I overheard someone near me in the crowd say something to the effect of, "We don't deserve this. We don't deserve her." I couldn't have agreed more. The "Teen Idle" number was also memorable because she was singing it slower than she does on the album version and inserting longer pauses in between lines, so the crowd kept coming in too soon as we sang along, and you could see her smiling and trying not to laugh. That's something that I have always loved about Marina - her adorable and charismatic personality; she frequently engaged with the crowd by smiling at us, waving at us, and so forth, and she has always been very human and authentic. Even when she used a fictional persona on Electra Heart, it still felt authentic.
Another example of Marina's adorable and charismatic personality shining in this show is when she let out a small giggle while singing a particular line of her song "No More Suckers" from LOVE + FEAR. I found this to be a special moment because I have always found the line to be silly and out of place for Marina (as it just doesn't sound like something that she would write, which she, funnily enough, revealed on Instagram once that she did not; co-writer of the song Alex Hope did). The line is in the song's second verse and goes, "When you stay over, you eat all of my food; yeah, you mess up all my towels, but this time, I'm checkin' out." Marina chuckled, and so did a lot of people in the crowd, and it just felt like Marina acknowledging that yes, it's a silly line. As I said, she has always been so human, so authentic, and this was just another example of that. Other highlights of the show included (but are definitely not limited to) "To Be Human" (which is my favorite song from LOVE + FEAR), "Believe in Love" (during which two of her dancers engaged in a romantic ballet-like dance that was so beautiful to watch), "Bubblegum Bitch" (one of my favorite songs from Electra Heart and a song that I had not expected her to perform), "I'm Not Hungry Anymore" (a cut outtake from her third album FROOT, the inclusion of which was 100% fan service), "End of the Earth" (a deeply emotional and synth-infused record from LOVE + FEAR that is probably my second favorite song from the album), and "How to Be a Heartbreaker" (which is probably her biggest and most well known hit - Glee even covered it - so it made total sense for it to be included). "End of the Earth" and "How to Be a Heartbreaker" both served as encores following "Baby," and the funny thing is that since most shows that I have attended have only included one song as an encore, I expected "End of the Earth" to be the only song that we were going to get as an encore once she started performing it, and I hadn't even been thinking of "How to Be a Heartbreaker." Once she started "How to Be a Heartbreaker," however, I thought, Oh, duh. Of course. She's not going to not do this song. How could I have forgotten about this? I was overall very pleased with the set list. When I saw Madonna a few years ago in Brooklyn, the friend with whom I went and I each came up with a dream set list - what we would have loved for her to play during the show - and although I did not do that for this show, what I actually got would have been pretty close to what my dream set list would have looked like. The actual set list was as follows:
- Handmade Heaven [from LOVE]
- Hollywood [from The Family Jewels]
- Primadonna [from Electra Heart]
- Enjoy Your Life [from LOVE]
- I Am Not a Robot [from The Family Jewels]
- To Be Human [from LOVE]
- Superstar [from LOVE]
- Froot [from FROOT]
- Orange Trees [from LOVE]
- Teen Idle [from Electra Heart]
- Believe in Love [from FEAR]
- Bubblegum Bitch [from Electra Heart]
- Emotional Machine [from FEAR]
- No More Suckers [from FEAR]
- I'm Not Hungry Anymore [outtake from FROOT]
- Karma [from FEAR]
- Blue [from FROOT]
- Baby [from LOVE]
- End of the Earth [from LOVE]
- How to Be a Heartbreaker [from Electra Heart]
The only thing that I would have liked to have been different about the set list is for her to have performed "Forget" from FROOT. Not only is it my favorite song from FROOT, I also consider it to be one of her signature songs. It's so emotionally powerful and represents that album so well. Overall, however, I am so pleased with the set list that it's almost as if it were tailored for me. "I'm Not Hungry Anymore" (which, like "Teen Idle," she played stripped back as a softer and slower piano rendition) is one of my favorite MARINA songs of all time, and out of all of the unreleased songs that she could have chosen to play on this tour, that's the one that she chose. I was also pleasantly surprised that she performed twenty songs. I have been to a lot of shows at which the main act only performed 12-15 songs, so twenty songs was such a blessing. Several of the older songs that she performed were not released as singles but are fan favorites, proving that Marina knows her fans and tries to treat us to what she thinks that we want. Aside from "Forget" being left out, I really only have two other complaints about the show, but neither complaint is serious enough to have really taken much away. The first is that I don't like how they set up the stage. Marina started the show off on a raised platform to which a small set of stairs led, and it was sometimes difficult to see her because there were big black lights on each side of the stage that blocked your view if you were more at a side of the crowd (which I was). She fortunately did not stay on that platform. She did quite a bit of moving around and only returned to the platform on occasion, but it was still an inconvenience that I wish they would have anticipated. Secondly, Marina first wore a silvery short gown that stopped above her knees and then wore a sleeveless shirt with a dog print on it and a short pink skirt. (The latter is pictured below, which is the best photo that I managed to get of her.) She announced on Twitter that the show would be very theatrical and epic, so I guess that I was expecting more costume changes and not just two outfits, but it was still pretty theatrical, especially during numbers like "To Be Human" and "Believe in Love." I do, however, definitely have to commend the sound quality of the show because I have been to many shows at which the sound quality was atrocious, but that was not the case here, and as I keep stressing, this was such a magical night that I feel so blessed to have been able to experience. I even got to briefly meet LPX afterwards, and considering the fact that she is a co-owner of Neon Gold and is therefore partially responsible for helping Marina make it, that was a pretty neat honor.
