Marina asks us, “are you satisfied?” Well, good question, let's take stock.
Qualities of a pop star:
powerful stage presence -√
dance moves- √
good looks- √
loud vocals- √
sense of humor?.... -√
Here's what I love about Marina: she's a pop star that doesn't take herself too seriously.
Since having been introduced to her album, however, many months ago, I struggled to put my finger on why, in a tepid soup of pop stars, this one floats to the top every time? She has the catchy synth hooks, power key chords and a strong voice, but it's her sense of humor that shines through and brings a whole other level to her music. Her performance only strengthened that image.
Choosing to let a musical intro silence the eager crowd, Marina's band took the stage, fist-pumping and dancing to their instruments. Marina herself sauntered out moments later, dressed in a velvety tight black top, black pencil skirt, hot pink nails and huge glittering blue sunglasses. Launching straight into “The Outsider,” Marina maintained the full on-stage tease, prancing around, making eyes at the crowd and dancing in all seriousness. It wasn't until she finished the first song that her lighter personality, so evident in her lyrics, shown through: she could hardly keep from laughing between songs, sweetly complimenting her fans (someone gave her a dozen roses) and the city and assuring us the night would turn out great, as she was having deja vu of the experience.
It's a good thing that (her only full release) The Family Jewels is a solid album, because Marina performed all but one song (no Hermit the Frog) plus a few others, including a cover of 3oh!3's “Starstrukk,” which she might have seemed a tad bit embarrassed to introduce. Keeping in the electric spirit of the original, her cover was a no-contest improvement over the original, in my opinion. You can't mistake her voice in the way she attacks notes and has no fear of growling out the notes, even if they go a little out of tune. At times alternately sounding like MIA and Sarah McLaughlin, Marina showcased her vocal prowess at slower moments on songs like “Numb” and “Seventeen” holding out notes and really wailing, to the great delight of the crowd. While most of the tracks remained fairly faithful to the originals with some additional instrumental embellishments, I was delighted that my favorites, “I am not a robot” and “Guilty” were slowed down just a bit to allow everyone to savor the epic nature of saturated pop. While I thoroughly enjoyed the show, my only suggestion would be that Marina employ a backup singer(s), as several of the tracks were limited by pre-recorded backing vocals.
But back to her sense of humor.... because let's face it, what pop star is complete without an industrial fan (I'm guessing it was actually used for cooling purposes with the added bonus of sultry hair flutter) and costume change. About two-thirds of the way through her performance, Marina disappeared for a few moments to re-appear in a purple and gold Letterman jacket, huge money glasses and holding two fake hamburgers- the perfect image to complement lyrics such as “Hollywood infected your brain... living in a movie scene, puking American dreams.... I'm obsessed with the mess that's America.” And the crowd couldn't have been happier to cheer along. I'd say yes, Marina, I was satisfied.
Set-list
The Outsider
Girls
Seventeen
I am not a robot
Oh no!
Numb
Obsessions
Rootless
Hollywood
Shampain
Are you Satisfied?
Guilty
Starstrukk
Mowgli's Road
End note: although I didn't catch their full set, openers Young the Giant warmed up the Croc easily, with most of the room either moving or at least paying attention. They reminded me a bit of Kings of Leon in a less “we no longer care” type of way. Its obvious the band was felt energized themselves and cared the crowd was along for the ride which made for a refreshing opening.
