Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - LaFee

Details: Written by: Sebastian Huhn; Published: 05 May 2009

Turbinenhalle, Oberhausen, Germany
4th May 2009
LaFee, Marya Roxx

LAFEE! This name means lots of teen and pre-teen fans and that was exactly what I got to see when I reached the hall where the doors should have been open already as the show should already start about half an hour later. About 15 minutes later it finally happened and excitement swept through the waiting crowd to finally get into the venue and secure the best places to see everything when SHE would appear later…

Marya Roxx

Mary already was musically active way before embarking on a solo career. She’s been a member of the widely recognized Girl Pop/Rock band VANILLA NINJA which she left in December 2005. Now she’s firming under the name MARYA ROXX and has released the EP ‘21?!’ and her first album is in the pipeline for a release some time in 2009. MARYA ROXX live is Marya Roxx (vocals), Paul Crook (guitar), Danny Miranda (bass), and John Miceli (drums). http://www.maryaroxx.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/maryaroxx

Music & Performance
I must admit that considering her past in the aforementioned group I had expected a similar sound styling for her solo performances. How wrong I was I should soon learn as pretty dry, classic rock sound hit my ears quite off-guard after the guitarist gave a brief introduction of the band’s name and a greet to the audience. Marya stormed the stage soon afterwards and started to rock to the driving tunes of the first song ‘Payback Time’ and she studied all the popular rocking poses and moves that’s for sure. The largest part of the set was dedicated to the vibrant faces of rock music with only one rather balladry track ‘Eternal Friend’ placed in it. Vocally there was absolutely nothing to complain about. Very strong and also soulful her voice was coming out the PA.

The audience which I thought would not move a single limb until their hero would appear surprised my by joining into the clapping when Marya animated them to do so and even a few head-nodding people could be spotted. She was a surprise but a positive one!

Setlist
01. Payback Time
02. Time to Run
03. Nothing going on
04. Eternal Friend
05. 21
06. Loverboy
07. Oh Yeah
08. Rebel

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 8
Light: 6
Total: 7 / 10

LaFee

LAFEE’s meteoric rise to the top regions of the German Single and Album charts began with the release of her debut single ‘Virus’ massively boosted by German music channel VIVA and the BRAVO magazine. The first self-titled album followed that same year. In the months between the first and the second album release ‘Jetzt erst Recht’ in July 2007 she had her debut as actress in a little soap called ‘Ninas Welt’. With ‘Shut Up’ she released a compilation album comprising a collection of songs from the last two albums with partly re-recorded vocals in English. Beginning of 2009 saw the release of her third album ‘Ring frei’. LA FEE live is LaFee (vocals), Ricky Garcia (guitar), Goran Vujic (bass), Klaus Hochhäuser (keys) and Tamon Nuessner (drums). http://www.lafee.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/emilafee

Music & Performance
She was the actual reason people had come here in the first place and the in large parts very young audience brought that out very clearly and loudly by shouting repeatedly “We want LaFee” but for the time being you didn’t see anything but a curtain the rest of the stage hid behind. As the violin sounds of the intro eventually sounded through the venue the young crowd broke into enthusiasm. As the curtain finally lifted it revealed an opulent stage decoration. The façade of a huge castle and then it was already time for the band members to take the stage. But what the hell were those odd masks about the guitarist and bass player were wearing. I felt so reminded of Mickey Mouse at first sight (I was glad they took them off soon). Anyway last but not least the star of the evening appeared dressed up in a black tutu to start with the first proper song ‘Ring frei’ from her most recent and same-titled album. Her music mingles generic rock riffs with often symphonic and frequently gloomy melodies which you often thought you’d heard somewhere before. RAMMSTEIN and NIGHTWISH came to mind for instance. Anyway own style is different!

But that couldn’t keep anyone among her little fans from partying, clapping and also singing along to the - if you will for give me saying so - terrible lyrics. Especially strange it was to hear children sing “Move your ass baby”. Shortly before we experienced a little glitch which prevented the song ‘Küss Mich’ from being played for a few brief moments! For the fan’s heart the show left nothing to be desired musically. From every album there was something packed into the set and of course well-loved and famous hits were played like ‘Prinzesschen’ ‘Mitternacht’ or even ‘Virus’. As regards the stage action: The guitar and bass player posed to a fare-thee-well! If only it wouldn’t have looked so contrived you could at least have a decent laugh about it for a funny part of the performance. Well, I can’t say that I enjoyed it, really, but at least all the others seem to have much fun watching her young idol parading over the stage and doing moves strictly arranged to the rhythms.

Setlist
01. Intro
02. Ring frei
03. Eiskalter Engel
04. Scheiß Liebe
05. Jetzt erst Recht
06. Prinzesschen
07. Küss mich
08. Ein letztes Mal
09. Was ist das
10. Beweg dein Arsch
11. Hand in Hand
12. Wer bin ich / Warum / Mama
13. Lieber Gott
14. Mitternacht
15. Normalerweise
16. Solos
17. Für dich
18. Lass mich frei
19. Heul doch
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20. Virus
21. Danke

Rating
Music: 2
Performance: 2
Sound: 7
Light: 8
Total: 4.8 / 10