Mariah the Scientist: Hearts Sold Separately in Seattle

It’s taken too many years, but the stars have finally aligned, and I have officially been to a Mariah the Scientist live performance. And I do mean a performance. If you’re new to Mariah, her shows really feel like an extension of her deeply stylistic music videos. Before we dive into her soulful set, let’s run through the rest. I do want to start out with a big shout out to the staff at Showbox SoDo for dealing with the things they do. From what I overheard, there were many people who turned out to have purchased scam tickets. The box office was very patiently dealing with all of these issues, which caused a nice long line for picking up proper tickets. I could go on a nice long rant about the ticketing industry, but please make sure you’re buying your tickets from trusted sources so you can support and see the artist you’re expecting to see.

I didn’t expect two openers, but I’m glad unlike some other folks that I made it into the venue for the first one. Akia was truly a treat with the physicality that she brought to her already solid vocal performance. She didn’t end up playing too many songs, but the songs she played had me feeling like I was hanging out in the early 00s vibing with my local R&B radio station right alongside Aaliyah and Ashanti.  According to an interview with Nuance Magazine, Akia kicked off her career by singing to 5000+ viewers on Facebook Live from a small town in Arkansas before she moved to Atlanta and promptly won a competition followed by signing a record deal with SinceThe80s. Akia is fairly fresh on the scene, but I think we can easily expect her fanbase to continue growing based on what I experienced at this show. Check out her first full length album DUMBCRAZYSTUPID which was released 3 months ago.

While standing in line to pick up my tickets at the box office, I was chatting with the owner of Studded Studios, a local shoe company that was delivering shoes for Mariah. When I mentioned the second opener was 4batz, the two people I was chatting with pulled out their phones to discover they both had the same song from him saved on a playlist. This was likely his viral track “Act II: Date @ 8” which eventually was remixed and included Drake on the track. Speaking of Act II, 4batz’s whole set made me feel like I was watching an extended version of Usher’s Confessions Part 2, but with two wonderful dancers alongside him. There was a chair involved, he took his shirt off, and he gave us a couple moments of pure raw vocals with no track. His first full length album Still Shinin released last year September.

For bats? Who knew they needed their own music?

After a surprisingly long pause between acts, possibly related to the large quantity of requests for attention in the crowd (stay hydrated out there folks), Mariah The Scientist took center stage. Known for her intricate shows, this year’s theme was focused on the well-known little green army characters you may have played with as a kid. Her latest album, Hearts Sold Separately, released last August and features herself as a small army figure standing on a soft pink rug with a pink background. Mariah also included two dancers for her set who were also dressed in very green, plastic-looking outfits doing choreography that I would never have imagined those little army men doing in my lifetime.

The visuals behind Mariah for this show were a beautiful mix of processing that at one point looked like never-ending layers of black and white reminiscent of Beetlejuice during her song of the same name. These visuals mixed with lasers and a proper spotlight person made this show feel like it could move from the already large venue and make its way up to Climate Pledge Arena. If you were one of the people that she gave her tiny handwaves to, I hope your knees are stronger than mine, because I was already weak from the rest of her performance.

Pictures of Mariah: Alex Crick