That's it, Marina. You're in Asbury Park. Have a few laughs.
As I mentioned last week, having U.K. superstar in the making Marina and the Diamonds play Asbury Park's Wonder Bar seemed a strange choice. On Thursday, she played the 1,000 capacity of Webster Hall. On Friday, it was the World Music Cafe's large room in Philly. Wonder Bar (not to be confused with the Wonder Bra) is spacious as a sports bar, but rather small for a rock club. The gig barely got about 200 in attendance in my estimation. Those 200 people were all big fans and still make for a lively crowd. In any event, I knew that M.D. would put on a fun show no matter what the venue. She being the rising pop star and good-time girl you want in your town.
This being my second time around with Marina, I knew she likes to put on a lively and glammy show. Nothing much as changed -- she still a jewel of a performer, a strong presence and just a damn good time.
The setlist, almost the same as last time, with Are You Satisfied? added (the cover of 3OH!3's Starstrukk was nixed from the set list, thank you for sparing us that) :
- The Outsider
- Girls
- Seventeen
- I Am Not a Robot
- Oh No!
- Numb
- Obsessions
- Rootless
- Hollywood
- Shampain
- Are You Satisfied?
- Guilty
- ENCORE: Mowgli's Road
So why the love for Marina from the party girls, the gay men and the idiot bloggers from Jersey? For me, I'm drawn to the eclectic mix she infused into her better tunes. I've always been an admirer of her early piano based tuned. Now, she strives to be more of a hitmaking, pop star. Somewhere in the middle is the happy medium that I think she shines. I Am Not a Robot and especially Mowgli's Road are the tunes that set her apart from other U.K. pop stars.
I do know that people have become fond of Marina Diamandis herself. Let's face it, she is gorgeous with her Mediterranean dark skin, long hair and exotic face. I'm looking at my old post and it sounded like a needed a cold shower after that show at Le Poisson Rouge. Beyond her va-va-room looks, she seems like a fun person to be around. She doesn't take her live show too seriously -- always cracking jokes between songs and winking at people in the crowd. While she goes through her dance moves and poses, she also brings out these props like a foam hamburgers and heart flashlights just to give the song a little bit of levity.
What I've noticed from the album and seeing her again is that she's aware of who she is and that place she has in music. Songs like I am Not A Robot, Oh No! and Hollywood are about trying to be herself in a business that doesn't want her to be herself. It's that ageless struggle in pop music, wanting to have success in America, without having to sell your soul. That's probably reason why I think the Family Jewels is a good album as whole, but Oh No! and Hollywood are heavy-handed in the production -- like they are trying too hard to make a mainstream radio hit. As I said, that happy medium between the glam pop star and piano-playing singer-songwriter is where I think she'll do best.
With that said, I tend to over-analyze the music so much, I forget to tell you how damn fun the shows are. It's put-your-hands-together, jump around and dance in your shows type of fun. I love Mowgli's Road live, it's a cracking tune with great sing-a-long lyrics and you get to scream "CUCKOO!" a lot.
That's it for MD and her boys -- well-worth the drive down. More of Asbury (rhymes with Glastonbury) at the end of this post.
As I side note, she totally knows who I am when I met her. I should have brought her flowers or brownies then.
Opening on this tour is Los Angeles act, Young the Giant. I accidentally called them Yes Giantess when somebody asked who the opening act. Then I like, "No, I think its Young and the Giants or something." As it turns out, they changed their name from The Jakes to Young the Giant. We all straight now? Good.
They were pretty good. They had a couple of good solid songs they can hang their hat on. The tune "My Body" has a heavy thumping beat, catchy bass hook, a decent chorus and some gnarly guitars. It's kind of hard to pinpoint them as a certain type of band. They are not glammy and dancey enough to sound like The Killers and too polished to sound like The Walkmen, but that's probably good that they have their own thing going. They definitely sound like a west coast band with their sunny outlook.
Their debut album comes out next month of Roadrunner Records.
As for The Wonder Bar, it was okay for the show. It's more of a sports bar than anything. The nearby Stone Pony, The Saint and Asbury Lanes are true rock venue. Looking at their programming, they mostly book local acts and cover bands. It's an open layout, with a round bar by the entrance and the small floor in front of the stage. I would look back and see the whole back of the bar not paying attention to the show. My only thinking of why this tour was booked at Wonder Bar was that other places were already booked.
The Wonder Bar has been there for a while. It wouldn't be a Asbury Park landmark without a picture of Springsteen or a Soprano cast member on the wall. They've got both. They've taken up the logo of that creepy clown with the wide smile, Tillie, from the torn down Palace Amusements.
So yeah, I would love to come back to Asbury Park. I haven't been to the super cool Asbury Lanes in a while with the rock-a-billy and burlesque nights. And let's not forget about the Silverball Museum, that's open until 3am!
The Asbury Park area is slowly getting some juice. It's indeed not the place anymore that Springsteen wrote about in My City In Ruins 10 years ago. Ocean Avenue is all neon now with a few nightclubs. On the way to show, I passed a douche-tastic club with lasers shooting everywhere and playing that dance club remix by Eric Prydz of Steve Winwood's Valerie. Ha! Even the old Howard Johnson's is a nightclub now. The rest of the town beyond Ocean's Ave ... that's another story.
Here some photos of the Wonder bar. Salt is playing. I guess she doesn't get along with Pepa anymore.
