Concerts Reviews
MARINA Crowns Fans and Conquers the Orpheum in Vancouver
For anyone who’s followed MARINA through her eras (glitter-drenched Electra Heart, kaleidoscopic Froot, or the rawer turns of Love + Fear), her latest tour feels like the payoff. The Princess of Power Tour, which stopped at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver, BC on September 7, didn’t just feel like a routine album cycle. It was a sold-out spectacle wrapped in video game fantasy, complete with levels and power-ups. And MARINA, now fully in her independent, self-directed era, looked like she was having the time of her life playing the main character.
Coco & Clair Clair kicked off the night, bringing their blend of dreamy rap-pop and sly confidence to the Orpheum. The Atlanta duo has been building a loyal following over the past few years with songs that straddle irony and sincerity, and their set had fans swaying, laughing, and singing along. Tracks like “Pretty” and “Pop Star” played perfectly in a live setting.
MARINA‘s set opened with a rolling Star Wars–style text crawl across a massive LED screen, setting the stage as if the audience was booting up a new adventure. MARINA appeared seconds later, shimmering in her pink bodysuit with fringe sleeves, launching into “PRINCESS OF POWER.” It was campy and theatrical, all of the things longtime fans love her for.
The show unfolded across six “levels,” each tied to songs and themes from her new album Princess of Power. The structure gave the night a clear arc, and MARINA leaned into it, shifting moods to match.
Level One: Star Fields paired that extended intro with an early-career classic, “Are You Satisfied?” to remind the crowd where this journey began, back in The Family Jewels days, when MARINA was the scrappy indie-pop oddball breaking into the charts.
By Level Two: The Heartbreaker, the audience was properly locked in. She dove into “Hermit the Frog” and the perennial fan favourite “How to Be a Heartbreaker.” The crowd sang every “love, love, love, love, love” hook.
Level Three: The Cocoon slowed things down, starting with “EVERYBODY KNOWS I’M SAD,” a new track that shows MARINA leaning into melancholy balladry with grace. Then she followed it up with “I Am Not a Robot,” a song that, tucked deep in her debut album, still has a special pull. Hearing it live again, alongside a newer track like “BUTTERFLY,” created a sweet symmetry between the MARINA of 2010 and the MARINA of 2025.
Things took a neon turn for Level Four: Digital Fantasies. Backed by slick, metallic visuals, she moved through “DIGITAL FANTASY,” the French-titled “JE NE SAIS QUOI,” and “METALLIC STALLION.” These songs leaned into the synth-pop sound she wears so well, her voice slicing through layers of production. If there was a moment that felt closest to “final boss” energy, this was it.
Level Five: Party Paradiso was where the show tipped into playful chaos. Many fans, men and women alike, had shown up dressed as royalty, tiaras and gowns everywhere you looked. MARINA used that energy for “CUNTISSIMO,” inviting a group of audience members dressed as princesses and princes to the stage for a full-on Princess of Power pageant. With her Libra humour in full force, she admitted it was hard to choose a winner since she’s “always indecisive.” In the end, she crowned not one, but two best friends. The entire bit was adorable and celebratory, and it only got louder when she closed the section with “Bubblegum Bitch,” which had the balcony stomping in rhythm.
Finally came Level Six: Keys to the Castle, the show’s final arc. She began with the cinematic sweep of “FINAL BOSS,” then threw the crowd into “ROLLERCOASTER” and “Primadonna.” Before the finale, MARINA took a moment to explain the roots of her new album. Princess of Power, she said, was inspired by video games, especially 1980s titles that used quirky sound effects and bit-crushed tones. She wove those same retro sounds into the record, and the live show, too. That reflection set up the closer, “I <3 You,” a heartfelt sendoff to all the fans.
If the concept and staging were the brain of the show, MARINA’s voice was the soul. The Orpheum Theatre’s acoustics suited her perfectly. Every note, from a breathy falsetto to her full-bodied belt, landed with clarity. She doesn’t rely on heavy backing tracks or elaborate choreography. Instead, her voice did the heavy lifting, filling every corner of the sold-out hall.
It’s easy to forget how long MARINA has been in the game. Since 2009, she’s moved through multiple personas, genres, and industry expectations, only to come out now on her own label, Queenie Records, with her vision sharper than ever. Princess of Power feels like her boldest album yet, and on stage, the concept clicks.
Whether you came for nostalgia, new material, or just to scream “Primadonna girl!” at the top of your lungs, the Princess of Power Tour gave you a place to do it.
Check out more photos of the show below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
Upcoming Princess of Power Tour Dates:
09/10 — Portland, OR @ Keller Auditorium +
09/12 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union +
09/13 — Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium +
09/15 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore *
09/16 — Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre *
09/18 — Toronto, ON @ HISTORY *
09/20 — New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall *
09/21 — Boston, MA @ Roadrunner *
09/24 — Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall *
09/25 — New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall *
09/28 — Washington, DC @ All Things Go
09/29 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE *
10/01 — Nashville, TN @ The Pinnacle *
10/02 — Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern *
10/04 — Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
10/07 — Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center *
10/09 — Dallas, TX @ Southside Ballroom *
10/11 — Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
10/13 — Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre *
10/14 — Pomona, CA @ Fox Theater *
10/16 — Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre *
10/17 — Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater *
11/15 — Mexico City, MX @ Corona Capital **
+ w/ Coco & Clair Clair
* = w/ Mallrat
More information here.
MARINA
All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: Young the Giant Finds New Life in Old Songs on the Victory Garden Tour
On July 24, Young the Giant brought the Victory Garden Tour to Vancouver’s Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, with Beach Weather and Cold War Kids opening the night. The show had the familiar shape of a summer tour stop, but Young the Giant made a convincing argument for why a band with six albums behind it can still make a new chapter feel worth hearing.
Beach Weather opened the night with a short, easygoing set that got the crowd moving without trying too hard to steal the show. The band joined the tour as a late addition after KennyHoopla was forced to drop off the run, and they made the most of the opportunity. Their set was loose, melodic and built for a summer crowd.
Cold War Kids were a different proposition. They have been around long enough now that calling them an indie rock band feels almost too broad. Their music has lived through several different eras of alternative radio, and their live show carries that history without becoming a museum piece.
Nathan Willett remains an excellent singer, with a voice that sounds remarkably close to the records live. He was joined by a band that looked completely comfortable onstage, particularly bassist Matt Maust, who has a wonderfully loose way of moving around with his instrument, and drummer Joe Plummer, who supplied much of the night’s physical momentum.
The set included staples such as “Hang Me Up to Dry” and “First,” along with newer material and songs that reached further back into the band’s catalogue.
Cold War Kids sounded good. More than that, they looked like a band that knows exactly what it is doing. Their performance had the kind of relaxed confidence that only comes from years of playing together. They were a strong fit for the bill, and the crowd that stayed for them was rewarded.
There is still something slightly strange about watching Young the Giant occupy the role of veteran alternative rock band. The members are not old, neither are the songs. And yet the people who grew up with “Cough Syrup” and “My Body” are now standing in a venue wondering where the hell the time went.
The band opened with “Evergreen,” the first track from Victory Garden, and it immediately established the show’s visual language. Five large, flower-like fixtures surrounded the stage, shifting through different colours as the set progressed. It was an obvious extension of the album’s artwork and title, but it never felt like an overproduced gimmick. The flowers gave the stage a distinct identity and helped the new material feel like part of a larger story.
Sameer Gadhia remains the band’s biggest weapon. His voice is every bit as impressive live as it is on record, but his presence is what separates him from a lot of other alternative rock frontmen. He does not simply stand at the microphone and sing. He moves, dances, gestures and works the room without making any of it feel calculated. He has the rare ability to make a large venue feel personal without pretending it is a small club.
The setlist leaned heavily into Victory Garden as nine of the 22 songs came from the new record, giving the album enough space to exist on its own rather than functioning as filler between older hits. That choice will inevitably frustrate some fans who came for the greatest hits, but I would rather see a band commit to its current record than spend two hours recreating the past.
The new material held up. “Already There,” “Bitter Fruit,” “Mona Lisa,” “God as Witness,” “Ships Passing” and “Different Kind of Love” all found their place in the set. “Ships Passing” was particularly strong, with the band folding a brief passage from “Titus Was Born” into the song before letting it build. “Different Kind of Love,” meanwhile, carried the confidence of a band that has found a fresh creative spark. The song became Young the Giant‘s first No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart,.
The older songs, naturally, still were the most popular. “Apartment” remains one of the band’s best songs, and hearing the opening guitar fill the venue was one of the night’s early highlights. “Garands” was a welcome deep cut, followed by “I Got” and the Home of the Strange pairing of “Repeat” and “Mr. Know-It-All.” This year marks a decade since Home of the Strange, and the set gave the album enough attention to acknowledge that milestone without turning the show into an anniversary tour.
“My Body” has been played to death over the years, but it remains impossible to resist live. The opening brought an immediate reaction from the crowd, and by the chorus, the entire venue was moving. “Cough Syrup” had a similar effect. The opening guitar was enough to trigger a roar, followed by thousands of phones appearing in the air. The song has become the band’s calling card for a reason. It still works.
The band eventually closed with “Mind Over Matter,” one of its biggest songs and a fitting end to a set that spent the night balancing the past with the present. There was no drawn-out encore routine. No disappearing backstage only to return minutes later because everyone knows the script. Young the Giant played the songs they wanted to play, gave the new album room to breathe, and left.
The Victory Garden Tour is built around the idea of reconnecting with joy and approaching life with a little more curiosity and empathy. Those ideas can sound overly earnest in the wrong hands. Young the Giant mostly avoids that trap by putting the message where it belongs: inside the songs.
Six albums into a career that began when the band members were barely out of their teens, Young the Giant no longer needs to prove that it belongs here. The more interesting question is what it wants to do next. In Vancouver, the answer seemed clear: keep the old songs alive, give the new ones a fair shot, and keep moving. For a band that has spent more than 15 years growing up in public, that is a pretty good victory.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
YOUNG THE GIANT
COLD WAR KIDS
All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: Jimmy Eat World Brings Bleed American Back to Life in Vancouver
There are some concerts you go to with no idea what you’re going to get. A 25th anniversary tour built around one of the best albums out there is not one of them. You know the songs, the order, exactly when the big moments are coming ; the only real question is whether the band can make those songs feel as alive as they did the first time you heard them. Jimmy Eat World had no trouble answering that question.
On July 19, the Arizona rock band finally returned to the Vancouver area for the first time since 2017, bringing the Bleed American 25th Anniversary Tour to the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. It had been a long wait, and the packed room made it clear that fans had not forgotten what they had been waiting for.
Motion City Soundtrack opened the night, giving the crowd a strong dose of early-2000s nostalgia before Jimmy Eat World took the stage. It was a fitting pairing. Both bands came of age during a period when alternative rock, pop-punk and emo could still find a home on mainstream radio, and both have built careers that outlasted the era that first made them famous.
For me, though, the night carried a more personal weight for a different reason: this was my first time seeing Jimmy Eat World live. After more than three decades as a band, and nearly a decade since their last Vancouver appearance, the fact that it took until 2026 for me to finally see them live made the wait feel even more significant.
Jimmy Eat World began the evening with songs from Clarity, their 1999 breakthrough album, including “Clarity,” “Your New Aesthetic,” “Blister,” and “Lucky Denver Mint.” It was a smart choice. The band could have gone straight into Bleed American and given everyone exactly what they came for, but those opening songs made a point: Jimmy Eat World did not suddenly become a great band in 2001. They had already been doing this for years.
Then they switched to “Bleed American,” and the stage itself transformed. A large wall that had kept the full production hidden from view moved aside, revealing the expanded Bleed American stage setup behind it. The lighting rig opened up across the width of the stage, giving the band a much bigger canvas for the album that had changed their career. It was a smart bit of theatre without feeling overproduced.
The album was performed from beginning to end, and hearing it in sequence made one thing very clear: Bleed American is an unusually complete record. The obvious hits are there, but so are the songs that tend to get pushed aside when a band is working with a limited setlist.
“A Praise Chorus” remains an absolute rush. “The Middle,” one of JEW‘s biggest and most recognizable hits, turned the venue into a massive singalong. “Sweetness” took that energy even further, with thousands of people shouting every “whoa-oh” back at the stage. “Get It Faster” brought the aggression. “Your House” offered one of the night’s more affecting moments. And “Hear You Me” remains one of those songs that can stop you in your tracks, even after you’ve heard it hundreds of times.
The beauty of hearing Bleed American played from start to finish is getting the full picture. The album has explosive highs, quieter emotional moments and everything in between. Songs that don’t always get the spotlight in a regular setlist suddenly have room to breathe.
Jim Adkins remains a compelling frontman, delivering these songs with the same sincerity that made them work in the first place. Tom Linton’s guitar playing was sharp and energetic, while Rick Burch and Zach Lind continued to provide the steady foundation that has held this band together for more than three decades.
There was no sense that the band was simply going through the motions of an anniversary tour. They looked like they were having fun and so did the fans.
That crowd was one of the best parts of the night. Fans who discovered Bleed American when it was released stood beside younger listeners who weren’t even alive when the album came out. Everybody seemed to know the words.
The main set ended with “My Sundown,” bringing the album to its quiet conclusion before the band briefly left the stage.
Jimmy Eat World returned for a five-song encore that moved beyond Bleed American, opening with “Disintegration” and continuing through “Pain,” “For Me This Is Heaven” and “(Splash) Turn Twist” before closing with “23.” It was a fitting reminder that Bleed American may have been the record that changed the band’s career, but it is only one piece of a catalog that has kept giving fans reasons to stick around.
Twenty-five years after Bleed American changed everything for the band, these songs haven’t become museum pieces. They’re very much still capable of making a room full of people lose their voices.
And after waiting nine years to see Jimmy Eat World back in Vancouver, I can say this with complete confidence: it was worth the wait.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
Upcoming Tour Dates:
July 22 –– Sandy, UT –– Sandy Amphitheater
July 24 –– Concord, CA –– Toyota Pavilion at Concord
July 25-26 –– Long Beach, CA –– Vans Warped Tour
August 14 –– Halifax, UK –– The Piece Hall
August 15 –– Cardiff, UK –– Cardiff Castle
August 16 –– London, UK –– Gunnersbury Park
August 22 –– Montreal, QC –– Vans Warped Tour
August 23 –– Toronto, ON –– RBC Amphitheatre
September 6 –– Phoenix, AZ –– Chase Field, supporting My Chemical Romance
September 9 –– Austin, TX –– Moody Amphitheater
September 10 –– Dallas, TX –– The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
September 12-13 –– Mexico City, MX –– Vans Warped Tour
November 12 –– Nashville, TN –– TBA
November 14 –– Tampa, FL –– MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
November 14-15 –– Orlando, FL –– Vans Warped Tour
More information here.
JIMMY EAT WORLD
MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK
All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer