The Marías07.25.25
Vancouver, BC
Nice to see a band I became familiar with during my Discover Weekly hayday, The Marías, continue to blow up. For this tour, a second go of it with Submarine for some cities that missed out on the first leg last year, they have upgraded to small arenas, like the arena out here at UBC. Bit of a trek to get out there, but it's a nice and modern little arena. Apparently it was used for some of the hockey games at the 2010 Olympics. The show was initially scheduled for the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, but then moved out to UBC, and upon even further demand, a second show was added. I stuck with my night one GA ticket, in a small pit in front of the seated floor section.
The band julie opened the show — I hadn't heard of them before, but I would describe their set as a moody start to the night. I may check out more of their stuff later!
The Marías have definitely made the most out of their upgrade to larger venues — the stage design was awesome, fully incorporating the underwater aesthetic of the album. Big geometric shapes reminiscent of a submarine towered over the band. There was a little platform that lead singer María Zardoya moved to at one point, with big bubbles dancing around her as she mimicked the movements of a swimmer. I have to say, James Cameron would be a huge fan of these aquatic visuals.
They played "Run Your Mouth" early on, one of their more danceable tracks and a favourite of mine from Submarine, setting the tone for an easygoing night. They snuck in a cover of The Cardigans' "Lovefool" — not sure what the backstory is there, but the crowd loved it! Glad they also touched on CINEMA, playing a trio of cuts from it, my favourite being the synth heavy "Hush".
After a pseudo end to the show — it was clear they were prepping the stage for an encore — the founding members, María and drummer Josh Conway, reappeared to play an intimate live rendition of the penultimate track on Submarine, "If Only". Josh lit up by a moody blue strobe light in the foreground, before María was revealed on the elevated stage in the background, in a transparent tub filled with water, while Gabe Steiner was softly brought in from the right on trumpet to bring the track home. Josh played a solo rendition of "Superclean" while I assume María dried off, before the full band got into their big hit, "No One Noticed". They capped off the set with "Cariño", a warm callback to the Superclean days.
All in all, the warm, dreamy vibes of their music was palpable in their live show and made for a relaxing night out. Certainly curious to see where they go from here!
