Jarina De Marco – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the pop artist, Jarina De Marco, talks about some of her crazy moments from touring. You can check out the feature, after the break.

When I was a teenager in the Dominican Republic, I was part of a disco funk band called “The Santo Domingo Funk Crew”. I know, It’s a long one. It consisted of 7 boys and me and we were the hot new band in all of DR. Our first concert happened on the north coast of the island, in a hip surf town called Cabarete. Caberete was known for windsurfing, kite surfing, amazing restaurants, hot surfer girls and boys, and for the long strip of beach bars that lined the tropical coast. As a new band, we managed to book a gig at a German beer house on this strip, which in retrospect might have not been the best audience for our music. Everyone was nervous. That’s when the shots came. Pretty sure 2 of the 3 MCs that fronted the band along side me got completely hammered due to nerves, which was probably a good idea for what would happen next.

There was no stage, we set up with our backs to the beach, facing the outdoor patio of the beer house, right on the sand. Let me remind you this is a tiny beach bar in a third world country where rules, safety and I don’t know, COMMON SENSE are pretty much glossed over. It’s part of the reason why I love my Island so much. There’s a freedom there that I don’t feel much of in many places on the planet. But when it comes to equipment, especially equipment that is resting on moist sand, I most definitely would have liked some strict first world rules and regulations.

Sound check went without a hitch. Our audience was arriving promptly, the German ones anyway, and our friends, who drove up from the capital to see us, eventually made their way too. We were pumped and excited to perform for the first time.

First song was a blast, we started the night on a high note. The non-German part of the crowd was dancing and really feeling our vibe. I suspect our German audience would have preferred some trance or early 2000 techno vibes, but they politely clapped. We carried on and we were having a really great set. It wasn’t until the third song that I noticed something was wrong. I started to see tiny blue electric bolts shoot out of my mic. I couldn’t believe my eyes. And then that’s when I heard the bass player hit an out of key note and I looked over and saw his face in total awe and horror. He had taken his hands off the bass and was starring at it in total confusion. He would started to play again and would let go of the bass shortly after. At this point, one of the MCs leans over to me and said, “Jarina, I think I just got shocked by the mic.” We were all being shocked by our instruments and equipment. The stands were electrified, the bass and guitar were electrified, our mics were electrified. We were all getting tiny and painful shocks every 30 seconds or so. The only ones unfazed by this were our 2 hammered MCs. We somehow managed to go through most of our set without major interruptions, even though WE WERE GETTING ELECTROCUTED.

It was now my turn to sing. My big solo song. I was covering “Cosmic Girl” by Jamiroquai. The song started, everything was fine, and then I touched my mic. It all went white for a second. I got zapped big time.The current went through my body like lighting and I forgot all the lyrics to the song. Shit, I forgot where I was so I just stood there. I came to shortly after because the bass player had been yelling, “JARINA! JARINA! SING FOR FUCKS SAKES! SING SOMETHING!” But it was no use. I didn’t know what song we were playing anymore so I just improvised something until it was over. That has to be the craziest and potentially deadliest thing that’s ever happened to me on stage. But everyone agreed, It was an electrifying show.

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