Marina V – Gewölbe Vegesack, Bermen; October 21st, 2017
Bremen was the second (and sadly, last) stop on my little weekend trip to see Marina V. After seeing Martin and James in that part of the city a few years ago I once again found myself in Bremen-Vegesak, but at a different venue this time. It was rather beautiful vault that was a lot warmer than I had expected and had great acoustics too. Since Marina had played in the city before people knew her, the audience consisting of many who had seen her perform the previous year. Thus, we got a relaxed concert in front of a full house. It was a lovely evening with lovely people and great music to boot. 🙂
It was a quick trip from Soltau, so I was in no hurry, took a nice morning walk and even went swimming before getting on a train. Once I arrived I even had some time to rest before going to the venue and I still arrived too early. A few people got there just after I did and we spent the time chatting until they let us in. I immediately loved the venue. The best way to describe it is “cozy” and considering it is in a basement it was much warmer than I had expected. They served some great wine too, so we had all the ingredients for a great night. With a real sound system, Marina and Nick could use their iPad and play some samples with the songs, which made them sound even better than the stripped down versions from the previous day. The sound was great overall and so was the audience. I could not have asked for a better concert. 🙂
After greeting us, Marina asked if everyone spoke at least a little English and we all laughed when someone joked “No”. Once again, there were a few Russians in the house and from time to time she translated for them. She started with the powerful ‘Fire in the Sky’, then needed to ask us the German word for “mosquito”, because she saw a few and is allergic to their bites. It was quite funny, because “Mücke” was just too hard to pronounce and we learned how Autralians call them “mozzies”. That might be useful one day. Later she talked about going to the thermal bath in Soltau and shopping in Bremen the last time they had been there.
She thanked everyone for coming, told us many stories between songs and even explained what the V in her name stands for. Every song sounded so amazing that night alternating between powerful and soft. Marina was in top form and so was her voice. Now I could hear a difference to the previous evening and it had by no means been bad then. 🙂 Before singing a Neil Diamond cover in Russian she told us how much fun he was live. She left the place behind her keyboard and walked towards us with the mic. It was a great rendition. I should have asked which song that is.
Before ‘Together alone’ she told us it’s about how social media affects us and how we are connected, but really alone. It certainly has changed the world and not always for the better. She played ‘Babushka’ right after and ended the first set on a positive note with ‘Born to the Stars’. It worked well, everyone singing along with much enthusiasm. We even managed to get loud (“it’s a bar, we can go crazy here”) and the place proved to have nice reverb. For the few minutes the song lasted we were all part of something bigger than ourselves, we were one. 🙂
During the break we chatted a little, tried local peppermint-chocolate candy (Bremer Kluten). Many people came to talk or buy CDs during the break and after the show too. The venue had such a friendly atmosphere it worked on everyone. 🙂 Nobody was in a big hurry to get back to their seats for the second part, but of course we all wanted to hear more and cheered happily when Marina returned to the stage after the break. ‘Be my Light’ got me back into the mood quickly and was followed by the wonderful ‘Autumn Song’, a request from the Russian group in the room.
I love how Marina writes so many songs I can instantly relate to. When I first heard her, I only liked the music, but since then I’ve learned to pay attention to her lyrics and boy do they hit me hard sometimes. That is why I keep coming back, because I can relate and feel touched by her songs. One of these songs is ‘Bring it on’ which she dedicated to me that night. She wrote it about suffering from depression and put all the negative feelings into it. For me it is a good song to listen to when you feel like you are all alone and powerless in the world, but know you can get through if you just don’t give up. “Only I can kill my demons, only I can give me freedom”. So far it has brought me to tears every time I listen to it and it did that night too.
‘Fairytale or not’ was a lovely surprise and ‘Say Hello’ lead to some nice clapping along that everyone joined in. It is nice to have a happy song in a while among all the dark Russian ones. 😉 Of course we love those as well. After one that is in a famous Russian movie she joked about Nick doing a Russian song. We learned that she only sentence she taught him was “I love your dog” in Russian and he took the opportunity to learn it in German as well, saying he’d turn into a complimenter or dogs all over the world now. 😀
More clapping along for an amazing version of ‘Speak’. <3 We cheered and clapped so much, it took a while before Marina could talk again. She thanked everyone in the room and ended the set with ‘Imagine’. We all wanted more and showed it so she gladly played an encore for us. ‘We can work it out’ rocked the house and ‘Unbalanced’ with Nick using his guitar to drum on just kept on rocking. With one last slow and melancholic Russian song Marina sent us on our way. It was the beautiful end to a beautiful concert. <3
Afterwards I got myself a second glass of wine and spent a lot of time talking to Marina while Nick started packing. Eventually I had to say goodbye to both of them with a final hug and a promise to come back. Who knows, maybe I’ll even make it to California one day. It has only been twenty years since I’ve been there. I was the last one to leave the venue together with the organizer of the show. We said goodbye and I happily went home. THank you Marina, thank you Nick – it was great!
Setlist
Fire in the Sky
‘I’ll be alright”
You make me beautiful
Run
Neil Diamond cover in Russian
Together alone
Babushka
Born to the Stars
Be my light
Autum Song
Bring it on
Fairytale or not
Say Hello
I am Iron
famous Russian Song from a movie
Speak
Imagine John Lennon cover)
We can work it out
Unbalanced
Russian song