The Marías Go Deep in Concert

Memo to Houston area employers: if some of your staff is late to work today or perhaps not coming at all, please excuse them. The Marías were in town last night. For nearly two hours, the Los Angeles indie pop band shared their brand of sizzling, sexytime songs with a very thirsty crowd. Those who work for you who were also at 713 Music Hall for the show either had a long, tempestuous night or are using PTO today for the kind of afternoon John Mayer sang about in that one song about bubblegum tongues. You know the one.

Mayer may have penned one playfully sultry tune, but The Marías have nearly cornered the market on music for “business time.” The band’s 2021 opus Cinema is a foreplaylist all its own, filled with instant quiet storm classics for hip lovers like “All I Really Want is You,” “Hush” and “Spin Me Around.” The band swiped right for a couple of those last night to the delight of the packed house, but a healthy percentage of the set – about half the songs – featured tunes from their latest release, Submarine, which dropped in May.

The focus on the new album and the crowd gathered for the sold-out show also proved the band, which formed in 2016, is no one-trick pony. As the title Submarine suggests, there’s some depth to The Marías. They’re taking their music new places, exploring deep pop, soul and Latin grooves and the fans crowding the vessel are more than just eager lovers.

They’ve still got a huge Latino fan base in Houston, as we noted when the band played White Oak Music Hall in 2022. But last night’s crowd also reflected the band’s growing LGBTQ audience. There were moms with kids who’d drawn on posterboards hoping to catch the eye of María Zardoya, the band’s frontwoman and namesake. While this review began a little cheekily, it should be noted that Zardoya has quickly become Selena-like as a role model to young Latinas who follow her fervently.

Whoever you were and why ever you were there, you left last night’s show satisfied. The set opened with “Hamptons,” a track from the new album, with Zardoya and company bathed in blue and the sounds of submarine sonar echoing throughout the hall. The song isn’t a Shakespearean ode to love, but a reflection on a frustrated relationship, as was the second song, “Run Your Mouth.” What gives, some paramours in attendance may have wondered?

I was going to veer away from the romance and sexiness of these songs, but as Zardoya herself sang last night, “Ay, No Puedo.” Cinema was a pandemic-era release that supercharged a lot of idle time for couples (throuples, quadruples, etc) back then, when the world stood six-feet apart and we longed for or leaned into human touch. So, fans who’d learned of Submarine’s pending release earlier this year may have wondered if there would be a return to voluptuous form.

The good news is yes but also no. The tunes on the new album are still mellow, but they’re more than romance igniters. They’re reflections on “Real Life,” too (song three in the set list), not just amorous daydreams. Fans still catch plenty of that vibe thanks to Zardoya’s breathy, soulful vocals and songs like “Lejos de Ti” and “Un Millón” literally sung in a romance language. Both were well-received by last night’s crowd who sang enthusiastically in Spanish, but there was a lot more offered, a lot which showcased all the promise this young band still has, something to really get titillated about.

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Zardoya, center stage

Photo by Jennifer Lake

As their band names suggests, The Marías are a plurality. They’re no single thing, even if they do a certain type of song especially well. And, they’re no one single person, even if their namesake is impossibly alluring. This is the part where we note how deftly the band moves from one sound to the next, how they set the musical foundation upon which stands Zardoya, the way she stood on stage props last night. But, it’s also the part where we honestly say she’s the centerpiece of the band. Like Freddie Mercury with prettier teeth and sleek, classic beauty, she commanded attention like the best of rock’s front persons.

When the band played here in 2022, our concert review aligned her with a goddess of love and when one thinks of love goddesses, one thinks of how those deities send love out to others. Last night was a chance to see how the smitten reciprocate that love. All eyes – and many, many smartphones – were on Zardoya. Whether she stood front and center, dancing slinkily to “Otro Atardecer,” the band’s collaboration with Bad Bunny, or giving us a perfect silhouette against a lighted moon-like backdrop from the back of the stage, it was hard to focus on much else.

When we interviewed Zardoya in 2022, she talked about her music idols, including Selena. In 2024, Zardoya’s giving off that same sort of reina energy, the kind we saw our moms, sisters, nieces and BFFs gravitate to when “Como La Flor” was a big hit. She’s got “it,” a sense of style and cool that can’t be learned. You’re just born with it. And it seems Zardoya has accepted that, appearing much more comfortable and confident in 713’s confines than she was on White Oak’s Lawn just two short years ago. She encouraged the crowd to sing to the ones they knew and urged them to dance to bops like “Ruthless.”

She engaged in a little stage patter across songs, mostly showing a lot of gratitude to the fans who were wild for the band. We’ve been to a few shows at 713 Music Hall and couldn’t think of one where the crowd was louder. When she recalled their first Houston show in 2018 at a small bar, some lucky and smart fans who’d been on hand for the intimate set cheered. It was clear from the shoulder-to-shoulder standing room only section and bilingual group sing-alongs that The Marías and their submarine are headed up, nothing but sunny skies ahead as they break the surface.

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Like Freddie Mercury, with prettier teeth, Zardoya is the consummate rock front person

Photo by Jennifer Lake

The Opener: Kudos to Houston music fans, who sometimes aren’t seen (or don’t present themselves) in the best light. Last night, the floor was already nearly packed when Los Angeles bass-drum-keys trio Automatic started thing up. And those early comers were gifted a set of catchy synth-dance songs from show opener “New Beginning,” with keyboardist Izzy Glaudini on vocals, to “NRG,” a body-mover pounded out and sung by drummer Lola Dompé. Rounded out by bassist Halle Saxon, the trio was an excellent setup for The Marías, as audiences who are or will catch the show over six weeks of joint touring have learned or will soon.

Personal Bias: Cinema is one of my favorite albums of the 2020s and at the risk of sounding annoying, I’ll just go ahead and say my favorite track from the album, “Spin Me Around,” was absent from last night’s set list. It’s hard to quibble, of course, since I love pretty much anything this band does, but I’m especially fond of that song. It’s not being mentioned here in that off-putting “Oh yeah, but I know the deep cuts” way, (at least I hope not) but really to urge you to listen to it if you haven’t yet. Maybe I’ll hear it in a future set by The Marías

The Crowd: Mostly Zs and mostly Latino and all the way hip. Fabulously fashionable, too.

Overheard in the Crowd: “So the girls like it because it’s romantic, and the guys like it because she’s hot.”

Random Notebook Dump: Here’s some behind the curtain stuff, faithful reader. The Houston Press’s photographers will take hella pictures at a show and then send more than we writers could probably use to choose from for these reviews. Then we wordsmiths have to put our selves in the shoes of amazing professionals like Jennifer Lake, who shot last night’s show, and decide which pics work best for the piece.
If you’ve seen Lake’s work, you already know she’s got an incredible eye, but she truly outdid herself last night and made it very difficult for me to choose a few photos representative of her skills and Zardoya’s photogenetics. I hope I chose right, but I’d encourage you to check out Lake’s photo page on Instagram to see if she’ll post more.

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The Marías Set List

Hamptons
Run Your Mouth
Real Life
Only in My Dreams
Little by Little
Un Millón
Blur
Ay No Puedo
Lejos de Ti
Ruthless
Lovefool (Cardigans cover)
Care For You
No One Noticed
Love You Anyway
Heavy
Over the Moon
Vicious Sensitive Robot
Otro Atardecer (Bad Bunny cover)
Echo
Hush
Paranoia
If Only
Just a Feeling/Ride
All I Really Want is You
Cariño