Marina & the Diamonds @ USF Verftet

A couple of months ago I was happily strolling through Byparken when I noticed a poster hanging on the side of a bin that gave me a nasty fright. I promptly tripped over a dog and fell into a lamppost. I bounced up again sharpish and flounced over to the bin, earning myself some weird looks from passers by.

Isn't it just glorious?

I have been trying to see Marina & the Diamonds for ages. I think I'm quite unusual in that I've seen just about every band I like play live, but Marina was still eluding me, so imagine that she was coming to Bergen of all places! One quick flounce to the ticket shop later, and I was all set.

I got to the venue freakishly early, as usual. So early in fact that I got asked if I was one of the volunteer workers. Not on your life, pal. The show was part of Bergenfest, so they were expecting quite a crowd (choice of 60 gigs for one ticket or something, and she was one of the biggest names on the list).

When they finally let us in I planted myself firmly at the barrier, and settled in to enjoy Norwegian band Harrys gym, who I'd listened to on Spotify earlier so I knew I'd like them. Feast your ears:

By the time they were setting up for Marina & the Diamonds, I was in a bit of a tizzy. Another case of the over-excited fainting attack. I managed to meditate my way out of that with some difficulty, and then, omg, it was starting!

They played all the songs from the album except 2, plus one completely new song and an old song from her first EP. It was a lot more than I had been expecting, especially because they were a little late on stage, and it was absolutely incredible. It embarasses me slightly to say that her songs have always been very interesting and special to me, lyrically and in the way that they're delivered. To me her whole album's like a collection of 4 minute long stories, and they're all fascinating.

There was a great crowd in, and everyone seemed to know all the words. The band seemed quite impressed, and they got the house lights turned up for a couple songs so they could see us all. I had been told that she's a bit hit and miss live, but this certainly wasn't the case at this gig. The voice she's got! It's amazing, and so unique. I hope she does another UK tour in the autumn, especially now she's getting more popular on the other side of the pond. She's supporting Katy Perry on her US tour all this spring/beginning of summer. And that's like, zomg :) big stuff right there.