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
AC/DC Brings the Thunder to Vancouver with their ‘Power Up Tour’
There is a point where a band stops being simply a band and becomes part of the architecture of rock music. AC/DC crossed that line a long time ago.
At BC Place on August 13, the Australian hard-rock institution brought its Power Up Tour to Vancouver for a night built around the things AC/DC has spent more than five decades doing better than almost anyone: giant riffs, simple choruses, loud guitars and absolutely no interest in pretending it needs to be anything else.
The Pretty Reckless had the unenviable job of warming up a stadium full of people who had come primarily to see one band. Taylor Momsen and company handled it well. The band had already played BC Place with AC/DC the previous year, so the venue was familiar territory, and their dark, muscular rock gave the evening a harder modern edge before AC/DC took over.
Momsen remains a compelling frontwoman. She has the kind of voice that can go from a rough growl to something surprisingly controlled without losing its bite. The Pretty Reckless worked through songs including “Death by Rock and Roll,” “Follow Me Down,” “Make Me Wanna Die” and “Going to Hell,” making a solid case for their place on a tour where the headliner could easily swallow an opening act whole.
Then it was time for AC/DC. The opening notes of “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)” were enough to make the point. There was no elaborate buildup or some cinematic explanation of what was about to happen. Angus Young walked out in his schoolboy uniform, picked up his Gibson SG and started playing.
That’s the AC/DC trick. They make the obvious feel good. Young is 71 now, and Brian Johnson is 78. Those numbers are hard to ignore for about five minutes. Then Young starts moving. He still has the strange, almost cartoonish physicality that has made him such an effective performer. The duckwalk remains intact. So does the ability to disappear into a guitar solo and somehow make a stadium watch one small figure instead of the enormous production surrounding him.
Johnson has changed more noticeably. His voice carries more wear than it did decades ago, and some of the higher passages have lost a bit of their old bite. Yet there is something fitting about hearing that weathered voice attack these songs now. “Back in Black” doesn’t need to sound exactly like the 1980 recording. Neither does “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.” Johnson sings them like someone who has lived with these songs for most of his adult life. The audience knows every word anyway.
“Thunderstruck” turned BC Place into a sea of raised arms. “Hells Bells” brought out the giant bell and all the expected theatrics. “Highway to Hell” needed almost no encouragement from the band; the crowd did most of the work. This is where AC/DC has an advantage over younger stadium acts. There is no learning curve ast hese songs have been sitting in people’s heads for decades.
The Power Up material, including “Demon Fire” and “Shot in the Dark,” fits into the set without disrupting its momentum. Still, the older songs are where the night really catches fire. “Shoot to Thrill,” “Sin City,” “High Voltage,” “Riff Raff” and “You Shook Me All Night Long” are simply too deeply embedded in the band’s history to compete with.
“Let There Be Rock” became Angus Young’s playground. His extended solo was indulgent and ridiculous, but that’s exactly what it needed to be. A shorter version might have been more sensible, but nobody came to AC/DC for sensible.
There is something almost refreshing about how little the band cares about reinvention. AC/DC has no new sound to unveil and no grand statement about where rock music is going next. It knows where it came from, knows what its audience wants and has decided that is enough.
By the time “T.N.T.” arrived, BC Place was already primed for the inevitable finale. Then came “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You),” with the cannons firing and the stadium turning into one enormous, deafening salute.
AC/DC isn’t trying to prove that it is still the future of rock. The band has become something more stubborn than that: a living reminder that a great riff doesn’t age nearly as quickly as the people playing it. Five decades in, Angus Young still wants you to turn it up. Vancouver was happy to oblige.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
Upcoming Power Up Tour Dates:
Thu Aug 27 Atlanta, GA Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Mon Aug 31 Houston, TX NRG Stadium
Fri Sep 04 South Bend, IN Notre Dame Stadium
Tue Sep 08 St. Louis, MO The Dome at America’s Center
Sat Sep 12 Montreal, QC Parc Jean-Drapeau
Wed Sep 16 Toronto, ON Rogers Stadium
Fri Sep 25 East Rutherford, NJ MetLife Stadium
Tue Sep 29 Philadelphia, PA Lincoln Financial Field
More information here.
AC/DC
THE PRETTY RECKLESS
All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer | @frogphotography
Concerts Reviews
IVE ‘Show What I Am’ Tour Lives Up to Its Name in Vancouver
A few months ago, I walked into Rogers Arena for my first K-pop concert. That show was TWICE’s This Is For Tour, and it was a bit of a crash course. I knew the group, knew some of the songs, but I was still trying to figure out what made a K-pop concert different from the rock and pop shows I had spent years photographing and reviewing.
Since then, I’ve done my homework. I’ve listened to more groups, learned more about the culture around K-pop, and started to understand why the relationship between a group and its fans is such a big part of the experience. So when IVE ended the North American leg of their Show What I Am Tour to Rogers Arena on August 9, I was much more prepared.
I still wasn’t an expert on IVE. I couldn’t have named every song going in, and I certainly wasn’t going to pretend I could match the DIVE fandom’s encyclopedic knowledge of the group. What I did have was curiosity, and by the end of the night, I had a much better idea of why IVE has become one of K-pop’s biggest fourth-generation girl groups.
IVE — An Yujin, Gaeul, Rei, Jang Wonyoung, Liz and Leeseo — has built its identity around confidence since debuting in 2021. The group’s catalogue includes some of K-pop’s biggest recent hits, including “LOVE DIVE,” “After LIKE,” “I AM,” “Kitsch” and “Baddie.” The Show What I Am Tour takes that idea of confidence and stretches it across a concert that deliberately gives each member room to stand on her own.
The show opens with a cinematic video sequence before the six members appear in black leather outfits, surrounded by dancers, lasers and sparks. “GOTCHA (Baddest Eros)” gets things moving before “XOXZ” and “Baddie” keep the momentum going. There is very little patience for a slow start here.
“ICE QUEEN” brings a more elegant edge, followed by “BLACKHOLE,” where the live band gives the song considerably more weight than its studio version. The band is one of the smartest choices in the production. The arrangements aren’t simply backing tracks played louder ; songs get extended instrumental sections, heavier percussion and moments where the musicians can actually breathe. It makes the show feel like a concert rather than a two-hour music video with a very large budget.
“TKO” brings the members down the runway for the first time, putting them much closer to the audience. “Holy Moly” follows, before “My Satisfaction” shifts the mood again with darker lighting, dancers and tight camera shots projected onto the arena screens (K-pop bands’ camera work really excels during live performance).
Then IVE breaks apart. The solo section is probably the strongest part of the show. Each member gets a chance to show a different side of herself, and the performances are different enough that the sequence never feels like six variations of the same idea. Wonyoung’s “8” is confident and controlled. Rei turns “In Your Heart” into a cute, playful Y2K-style performance. Liz’s “Unreal” strips things back and puts her vocals front and centre. Gaeul’s “Odd” is dreamy and understated before Leeseo completely changes the temperature with the hyperactive “Super ICY.” Yujin closes the sequence with “Force,” combining live vocals with demanding choreography before handing the stage over to the dancers.
For someone coming into the show without a deep knowledge of IVE, this was the section that made the group click for me. They are six distinct performers, not six interchangeable pieces of a larger machine.
The group eventually reunites for “♥beats,” changing into white outfits with angel wings and moving into a lighter part of the show. “WOW,” “Off The Record” and “FLU” lean heavily into fan interaction. There are waves, heart gestures, posing for cameras and plenty of moments where the members seem just as entertained by the audience as the audience is by them.
That connection is hard to miss. K-pop fans don’t just know the songs, they know the choreography, the members, the inside jokes and the tiny details. Watching thousands of people respond to the same cue at exactly the same time can feel slightly surreal when you’re still learning the language of the genre.
And then IVE brings out the big guns. “ATTITUDE,” “LOVE DIVE,” “REBEL HEART” and “I AM” arrive in quick succession, turning Rogers Arena into one enormous singalong. “I AM,” in particular, gets the kind of response you expect from a band playing its signature song.
“BANG BANG” follows, with the group teasing the crowd that it is the final song before an extended outro sends the members racing back across the stage.
Of course, it isn’t the final song. The first encore brings “Wild Bird” and a more relaxed version of IVE, with the members wearing tour merchandise and spending more time talking to the audience. Then comes another surprise: Wonyoung takes over a DJ booth for “Supernova Love,” the group’s collaboration with David Guetta. “Kitsch” follows, and then “After LIKE” closes the night with thousands of fans singing along.
I came into Rogers Arena knowing far less about IVE than the people sitting around me. I left with a much better understanding of the group, and more importantly, a better understanding of why K-pop concerts have become such a force.
The spectacle is impressive, but that isn’t what stuck with me. It was the personalities. Show What I Am works best when IVE stops trying to prove how big the production can be and simply lets the six members show what makes each of them different. The choreography is sharp, the live band adds real punch, and the production rarely sits still for long. But the biggest success is that the show gives fans plenty of reasons to feel like they are part of it.
A few months after my first K-pop concert, I’m still learning the names and catching up on the catalogue. I’m starting to get it, though. And IVE made a pretty convincing case for keeping up.
Upcoming IVE Show What I Am Tour dates:
Sept. 4 – Hong Kong – Asia World Arena
Sept. 5 – Hong Kong – Asia World Arena
Sept. 11 – Taipei, Taiwan – Taipei Arena
Sept. 12 – Taipei, Taiwan – Taipei Arena