On any given night, the Tin Angel in Philadelphia’s Old City section can be practically dead or packed to the rafters. As far as venues go, it’s a fairly small space so it was no surprise when there was standing room only for a Anya Marina, Jenny Owens Young and Greg Laswell performance.
I slipped in through the entrance as California singer-songwriter and radio DJ Anya Marina’s set began and managed to snag a bar stool flush against the merch table in the back of the room. Marina’s voice is just as sweet live as it is on her recently released sophomore album Slow and Steady Seduction: Phase II. Despite the syrupy quality of her vocals, Marina isn’t all rainbows and lollipops: she joked about the freezing cold weather and how she can’t understand how people fornicate in such temperatures when she’d rather stay all bundled up and hibernate until warmer days.
To fight off the chill in the packed room, Marina announced, “it’s cold so I feel like dancing. Let’s get up and shake our asses!” before launching into “Waters of March”, a Brazilian song composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim, which Marina sang parts of in Portuguese. Marina shimmied around stage as accompanist Brandon Walters churned out edgy guitar riffs that provided a perfect compliment to Marina’s sweet and sexy vocals.
Marina ended her set with the hopeful “Miss Halfway” from her debut full-length of the same way and the opening track from Seduction, “Move You”. The former is an empowering anthem about not letting her spirit be broken, which could have been sung with a bit more of an angry passion. The latter started soft and slow before rocketing into an uptempo seduction of a song.
Anya Marina has some West Coast dates scheduled for this month before hitting the road again with Laswell, this time bringing Jay Nash in tow, as she works her way from the Northeast down to Austin, Texas for this year’s South By Southwest Music Festival. Be sure to catch her in a city near you.
Tour Dates:
Feb 06 – Les Saints / Montreal *
Feb 07 – Great Scott / Allston, Ma. *
Feb 11 – Fingerprints (In-Store) / Long Beach
Feb 12 – Hotel Cafe / Los Angeles
Feb 14 – M-Theory (In-Store) / San Diego
Feb 16 – Elliott Hall of Music / West Lafayette, In. #
Feb 17 – NIU Convocation Center / Dekalb, Il. #
Feb 21 – Pepperdine University @ The Sandbar / Malibu
Feb 25 – Vinyl / Atlanta ^
Feb 26 – The Evening Muse / Charlotte, NC ^
Feb 27 – Coffee East / Easton, Md. ^
Feb 28 – Tin Angel / Philadelphia ^
Mar 01 – The Canal Room /Â New York City ^
Mar 02 - Jammin’ Java / Vienna, Va. ^
Mar 04 – Funk n’ Waffles / Syracuse ^
Mar 05 – Red Square / Albany ^
Mar 06 – Cafe 939 at Berklee / Boston ^
Mar 07 – Club Cafe / Pittsburgh ^
Mar 09 – The Winchester Tavern & Music / Cleveland ^
Mar 10 – Rumba Cafe / Columbus ^
Mar 11 – Martyrs’ / Chicago ^
Mar 01 – Vaudeville Mews / Des Moines ^
Mar 14 – The Bottleneck / Lawrence ^
Mar 19 – Hotel Cafe showcase at The Parish / Austin
Mar 21 – Atlantic/Chop Shop Records party at Brush Square Park / Austin
Mar 21 – Chop Shop Records showcase at Maggie Mae’s / Austin
*w/ The Virgins
#w/ Jason Mraz
^w/ Greg Laswell and Jay Nash
Anya Marina: website | myspace | Slow and Steady Seduction: Phase II review
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