Marina Diamandis (formerly known as Marina and the Diamonds and now mononymously as MARINA) is one of my favorite musicians/vocalists of all time, and seeing her on her Ancient Dreams of a Modern Land Tour (to promote the album of the same name) was such a memorable experience, a memory that I will forever cherish. I saw MARINA on her LOVE + FEAR Tour as well, and it's honestly really difficult for me to choose which show that I prefer because they were both such great experiences for different reasons. The show that I saw during the LOVE + FEAR tour was outdoors at the NYC Summerstage in Central Park, and that made for a magical, unique experience, especially since the show was in September and the weather was absolutely gorgeous - perfect, in fact. This, however, was in February and was consequently indoors, and the wait outside was brutal because of how cold that it was. We got to the venue as early as possible because we wanted as close of a spot to the stage as possible, but much to our surprise, when we arrived, the line was very, very long, and like I said, it was unbearably cold outside, so waiting in that line was not fun (especially since I really hate winter as it is). MARINA is, of course, so worth it, however, and the concert was definitely worth it. Unlike the last time that I saw her (when she had two opening acts - LPX and Daya), MARINA only had one opener this time; opening for her was Swedish pop singer Tove Styrke, and although I was only marginally familiar with her prior to seeing her, she put on such a great show, and I absolutely loved her outfit. She had so much energy and also just seemed like a genuinely kind and caring person. Highlights from her show were her new single "Show Me Love" and her cover of ABBA's "Super Trouper." (See her set list below.)
- Changed My Mind
- Mistakes
- Mood Swings
- Super Trouper
- Start Walking
- Say My Name
- Show Me Love
- Borderline
- Sway
Before the show started, my best friend and I went to the bar to order some drinks, and at the bar, there was a sign that said that Tove Styrke was on at 8 while MARINA would be on at 9, and I was pleasantly surprised by the punctuality. When it comes to most shows that I have attended, there is a rather long wait in between acts, and very rarely does the main act come on when they are supposed to, but MARINA started her set at right around 9:00 sharp. As previously stated, each of the two MARINA shows that I have thus far attended had its pros and cons, and while this show took place in midwinter (a definite con), it being indoors allowed for a bit more theatricality and color. MARINA was dressed in a billowing teal top with black leather skintight leggings. Her eyeshadow color matched the color of her top, and her hair was piled in a very high ponytail at the top of her head reminiscent of Ariana Grande's signature 'do. (See MARINA's outfit that night here.) When I saw MARINA on the LOVE + FEAR Tour, she was dressed much more casually in a sleeveless off-pink tee featuring an image of a dog, with a matching color mini-skirt. (Check that out here.) The stage also featured a lot more color, and unlike the LOVE + FEAR Tour, MARINA had a live band this time around, making the show feel more like a rock show. That, of course, came with pros and cons. I loved that rock show vibe, but the last time that I saw her, she had dancers doing ballet-like interpretive dance most memorably during "Believe in Love," and I did really love that. That kind of theatricality was largely missing this time around, but it was replaced by a more theatrical outfit and colors, as previously stated. As I expected would likely be the case, MARINA opened with "Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land," also the album's opening track, and the set list (shown below) also featured a lot of pleasant surprises.
- Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land
- Venus Fly Trap
- Froot
- Man's World
- Are You Satisfied?
- I Am Not a Robot
- Oh No!
- Purge the Poison
- Handmade Heaven
- Hollywood
- Happy
- Forget
- Can't Pin Me Down
- Teen Idle
- Highly Emotional People
- I Love You but I Love Me More
- How to Be a Heartbreaker
- Bubblegum Bitch
- Goodbye
Something that really stood out to me during this show was the energy level of the crowd. Very rarely do I attend a show with a crowd that was this excited, and it wasn't just during the big hits or fan favorites either; it was pretty consistent throughout almost every single song. One thing that surprised me about the set list is that even though most of the songs (seven out of the total nineteen) were from Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land, a lot of attention was also placed on prior albums, especially The Family Jewels and FROOT. Very little attention was paid to her fourth album LOVE + FEAR, with only "Handmade Heaven" being performed from it. That was a minor disappointment because my favorite song from LOVE + FEAR is "To Be Human," the song from the album that I feel would have best fit the overall theme of ADIAML (although I do understand the inclusion of "Handmade Heaven" as well because of its focus on nature, which made sense coming after "Purge the Poison"). Another thing that came as a surprise was the fact that even though she recently re-released ADIAML as a deluxe version featuring three new songs ("Happy Loner," "Pink Convertible," and "Free Woman"), she did not perform any of those new songs, and another big surprise was that she didn't perform "Primadonna" (one of her biggest hits), although she apparently did the following night when she played a second show at the same venue. I was also a bit disappointed that she didn't perform "New America," which would have been a really fun and intense song live. As I said, however, most of the surprises were pleasant, and amongst them was the fact that she played my favorite song from FROOT - "Forget." Its exclusion from the LOVE + FEAR Tour set list was its biggest disappointments for me, so the second that she began with "Sometimes I think I'm not that strong...," I screamed with excitement.
Other highlights were "I Am Not a Robot" (the song that made me a fan more than a decade ago), "Purge the Poison" (such an insanely fun song to hear live), "Hollywood" (which she will probably always include on every tour because of "Actually, my name's Marina"), "Teen Idle" (a fan favorite that will likely also always be included), "Bubblegum Bitch," and "Goodbye" (which functioned as the encore). When I saw Evanescence in January, I remarked in my review that it surprised me that they opened and closed with the same songs that open and close The Bitter Truth, and I was similarly surprised here because MARINA did the same thing (with ADIAML). This was overall such a phenomenal show, proving MARINA to be a memorable vocalist as well as stage performer, equally captivating dancing with a mic in her hand as she is sitting behind her piano. My only complaint, one that my best friend with whom I attended the concert would definitely agree, is problems that we had with the venue itself, Terminal 5. We ended up agreeing to hit the merch table after the show (mainly because the floor was GA and we wanted as good a spot as possible). The merch table was not easily accessible, however; it was sort of hidden, and there were no signs directing people to it. Therefore, after the show ended, we got in what we believed to be the line for the merch table, but when we finally got to the front, we realized that we were in a line exiting the building and that the merch line had been parallel to ours. We briefly (literally no more than ten seconds) paused to look at the table to see if there was anything worth getting in the merch line for when someone (presumably some kind of security guard) rudely accosted us and told us to move. It was incredibly rude and uncalled for, so we just left, and because of that, we agree that we would be hesitant to attend another show at Terminal 5.
