Mariana’s Trench dazzled the audience. Elizabeth Bates/The Pit
Let me start out by saying that Mariana’s Trench has consistently been in my top five favorite bands for the past three years, roping me in with their four part harmonies that open up their 2011 rock opera, “Ever After”.
The Canadian four-piece released their fourth LP, an 80’s pop inspired rock opera titled “Astoria”, in October of 2015 and a tour shortly after; the first of which to go south of the Mason Dixon line since 2013, so naturally I had to go. Their hour-and-a-half long performance in January did not fail to amaze me and I checked them off of my “Must See Bands” bucket list.
The band then announced just a few months later another tour titled “80’s SPF Tour” in which they were coming back to the states for a summer long tour. This time I was prepared. I had learned their lighting cues, choreography (or lack thereof), and where I wanted to be at certain points during the show to get the best pictures I could, but this time around they exceeded my expectations and went above and beyond.
They start off the show with the title song of their newest album “Astoria” and the band walks onto the barely lit stage surrounded by a blue haze before singer Josh Ramsey appears wearing nothing but a hood (which was promptly thrown off with a hilarious amount of difficulty after the first song), a choker necklace, and his black leather skinny jeans and combat boots. The first thing to catch me off guard was surprisingly not the half-naked man in front of me, but the new custom made instruments for the show. This time around they donned matching clear glass guitars with LED lights that lit the necks and bodies of the instruments as the first chord plays over the synthetic melodies.
Throughout the night Mariana’s Trench did nothing but exceed already high expectations keeping perfect four part harmony and incredibly high energy until the very last note as the crowd sang along to every word. I’ve always said that Mariana’s Trench has a “cult-like following” in that there’s three types of people:
- Those that have never heard of Mariana’s Trench
- Those that have heard maybe one or two songs but never listened to anything else by them
- Those that are completely and utterly obsessed with the band, know every word, four part harmony, instrumental solo, song transition, and will do anything to see this band live.
This was definitely proven true that night as 95% of the crowd in St. Pete had also seen Mariana’s Trench earlier in the year in Orlando and many had also traveled to see the band in places like New York City and Toronto.
By the end of the night my friend Hannah and I were skipping down the streets of St. Petersburg high on emotions from the experience that is a Mariana’s Trench show.
Before we began our two hour drive home in which we discussed every detail of the evening, from the death glares of other concert goers as we were brought into the venue before everyone else, to seeing the band shirtless in their dressing room, to interviewing Skylar Stecker and the inappropriately flirtatious comment Hannah made as we walked back through MT’s dressing room, all the way to fangirling and dancing to our hearts content the rest of the night, I got my one and only fan quote from Hannah, that Mariana’s Trench was quite possibly “one of the best live bands I have ever seen” and I could not agree more.
