The Marias brought a continuation of their Cinema tour back to Houston and it was another memorable show from the band.
The last time the Marias were in Houston they played in the downstairs room of White Oak Music Hall, which holds a capacity of about 1,000 fans and sold out the show. This time the band played in the lawn portion of the venue with a capacity of 3,000+ people and also sold out the show once again. It shows how much fans love them and how many more new fans they gained as well.
The show started with New Zealand singer Benee. Her entire set was full of so much energy, dancing and crowd interaction. She ended the set with her Tik Tok viral song “Supalonely”, attendees immediately pulled out their phones for videos and started singing along to the song, we can’t wait to see more from her in the future.
It was finally time for The Marias to perform, the band slowly came out onstage and fans immediately started screaming and cheering once they saw the silhouettes of the members. The band opened with a medley of “Talk to Her / Calling U Back” and the fans screamed the lyrics in excitement. The band thanked everyone for coming out to the show and encouraged the fans to have a great time, they sang songs from their entire discography such as “Only in My Dreams”, “Clueless” and “Heavy”. One thing I love about the band is that they have so much interaction with the audience, during each of these songs Maria was given flowers from fans, she blew kisses to them and even took photos with the disposable camera she was given by the fans, it lit up the fans faces when they were being interacted with.
“Over The Moon” was performed next, even though this is a slow and gentle song, fans were screaming it at the top of their lungs, it shows how much they love it. The band took a brief moment to tell us about a song they collaborated on with a fellow Puerto Rican artist named Bad Bunny, to which everyone knew and cheers roared once she made the announcement. They played the song “Otro Atardecer” and during this moment, it was probably the loudest I heard the entire venue, the attendees were obviously fans of both artists, even a Puerto Rican flag was thrown on stage and it was waived around for a few songs, it comes to show how much the band loves their roots. After the song ended, Maria asked the crowd if they knew this next song, and the intro to “Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears played, everyone sang in unison to this iconic 90s song. The “last” song that was played was “All I Really Want Is You”, the band thanked everyone for coming to the show and slowly exited the stage. The venue was filled with chants from fans wanting an encore, and little did they know what was to be played next.
The band came back onstage and performed a personal favorite “Hush” before saying their final goodbyes and thanking the crowd for coming out once again. The band performed “Cariño” as a finale and Maria came down from the stage and sang with fans, hugged them and even took photos with them. Maria was given a bouquet of flowers and you could see how happy that made her feel. It was such a fun show to experience. The Marias always know how to put on an incredible show, they are truly an amazing act, if they ever come to a city near you please make sure to attend the shows, you will not regret it.
THE MARIAS
Photos + Review by Michael Perea | Exclusively for Music, Why Not!