(The Social, Orlando FL) Laura Marano, who played the adorable and quirky character Ally Dawson on Disney Channel's 'Austin and Ally' performed to a very intimate audience August 16 2022 at Orlando's 'The Social' venue.
In the days leading up to the performance, Marano released a social media post acknowledging that many of her fans would be more familiar with her acting days than with her musical career. In all transparency, I went into this show not knowing much about her style or her music, so I was a pretty blank slate ready to be molded.
My daughters and I actually upgraded our tickets for this night to the VIP Meet and Greet package. Tickets to the show were an extremely low $20 only, and the Meet and Greet upgrade was only an additional $45 per ticket. The Meet and Greet included early admission into the venue, earlier access to the merchandise table, a special performance of a song by Laura not to be played during the concert, an autographed concert poster, and of course your Meet and Greet opportunity / photos with Laura.
So here is the timeline. Meet and Greet was to begin at 530p. It was actually closer to 545p when we went through the front doors. We followed everyone ahead of us and were standing in the merch line. To the left of us was an empty stage and event floor. My daughters and I opted to forego the merch table for now and we took our position dead center, front row as we awaited Laura. She arrived just after 6p and was very warm with our group. She even recognized a couple of super-fans who had apparently attended other shows of Laura's in other cities for this same tour.
She proceeded directly toward the keyboard, behind from which she stood as she opened up her songbook (similar to Ally Dawson's character who also maintained her prized songbook). She said that at each of her concerts, she made it a point to sing one unreleased song. Further, as part of our Meet and Greet experience, we were being treated to an extra unreleased song. For our special song, Marano performed to 'Out Loud (You've Got Me)', a slow-tempo'd ballad which was very well received by tonight's crowd. Laura was very hospitable toward this VIP group and advised us that she would join us in the backroom behind the bar area for our meet and greet.
If you have the option to upgrade to the VIP experience, it is well worth the extremely low cost. In fact, knowing how much interaction we had with her, I would have gladly paid significantly more for these tickets. She hugged each of my daughters and myself, talked with us, recorded a video greeting for my wife who was unable to attend because she was in the Philippines, took several photos with us, and then signed some really nice-quality concert posters for us!! In all, we probably had about 4 minutes with her, which is about 3 minutes and 55 seconds more time than you normally have with most artists at their meet and greets (and they charge about double what Laura did). After leaving Laura, we were ushered back into the main room where we reclaimed our positions toward the center of the stage, front row.
Casey Conroy was tonight's opening act. She was pretty and had a captivatingly mesmerizing voice that reminded me of a Lana Del Ray meets The Cranberries situation, in terms of vocal style and sound. I would like to see her perform again in a similar intimate venue setting.
Tonight's second act was to be Mark Diamond. There was a buzz about him amongst tonight's audience as we waited after the meet and greet, with several fans saying how excited they were to see him perform live. But, as luck would have it, Mark apparently fell ill this evening and could not make it out to tonight's show. In shows previous to this one, each night Mark sang a duet with Laura during Laura's set, so that song ('Plus 1') would not be heard this night.
Laura ended up taking to the stage just around 9:30p, approximately 15 minutes ahead of when she was expected to come out as a result of Mark's illness. In between songs, Laura would give quick introductions leading into each song. The overarching theme of most of her ballads tonight was centered on a relatively recent breakup that she had. Now I don't follow her on social media and have not kept up so I'm really not sure who her ex was or what the circumstances were around their breakup, but the vulnerability she displayed when speaking about their breakup was extremely relatable, and the reaction from the rest of the crowd seemed to indicate that she had won over the hearts of all of those in attendance.
The sadness tonight extended beyond her breakup. For one of her songs 'Smoke Alarm' she described a time when her fire alarm went off, and she felt alone in this world. But despite the underlying sad theme, you didn't come out of tonight's show depressed. If anything, I felt motivated in seeing this young 26 year old seemingly finding herself and being secure and accepting to what her love life and heart had experienced. In her expressions and stories, I could reflect back to my younger days when I had listened to many of my friends describe similar situations and emotions with their love-life's.
With this being said, there were also alot of moments when she seemed to have a ton of fun while up on stage. She had a pretty fun time dancing to 'I Wanna Know What It's Like' and 'Boombox'. Where there were alot of similarities with her Ally Dawson Disney character, she seems to also recognize and embrace the 'adult' side of herself, which was freely on display as she danced around the stage for these two songs.
Something else to note with Laura's concerts: she has an arsenal of songs. For every city she performs in, she debuts a new song that hadn't yet been performed elsewhere on the tour. With Mark Diamond's illness cancelling out their scheduled duet for tonight, we were treated to the acoustic keyboard debut of 'Hot Mess', and also a keyboard-only version of 'Run'.
Concerts should provide an opportunity for the artist and their crowd to connect. Tonight's show epitomized that, and the audience gained many personal insights into the heart and soul of Laura Marano. Similarly, it felt as though Laura genuinely was drawing from the energy of this very appreciative and receptive audience tonight.
In contrast to her Disney television character, Laura is very in tune with the beautiful young lady that tonight's audience was hoping to see. She seems to have a very sincere passion toward songwriting and musical performance. Similar to her Ally Dawson character, Marano is very lovable, genuine, and entertaining to watch. This is an artist I would love to help support and whose career I would be happy to see grow. I'm not sure if she has aspirations to sell out arenas or not, as she seemed very comfortable and happy in the smaller intimate setting, perhaps because she could connect at a much more personal level with all in attendance.
I've watched many shows live, but this honestly will be one of my favorites and more memorable ones. For 5.5 hours, I felt like I was immersed in Laura's world and enjoyed being able to connect with her during the meet and greet, her soundcheck, and every single time she made eye-contact and smiled with my daughters during her concert.
Best wishes for your future Laura. Should you pass through Orlando again, this writer and his family will absolutely come out to watch you again!
Bailey Guinigundo
In the days leading up to the performance, Marano released a social media post acknowledging that many of her fans would be more familiar with her acting days than with her musical career. In all transparency, I went into this show not knowing much about her style or her music, so I was a pretty blank slate ready to be molded.
My daughters and I actually upgraded our tickets for this night to the VIP Meet and Greet package. Tickets to the show were an extremely low $20 only, and the Meet and Greet upgrade was only an additional $45 per ticket. The Meet and Greet included early admission into the venue, earlier access to the merchandise table, a special performance of a song by Laura not to be played during the concert, an autographed concert poster, and of course your Meet and Greet opportunity / photos with Laura.
So here is the timeline. Meet and Greet was to begin at 530p. It was actually closer to 545p when we went through the front doors. We followed everyone ahead of us and were standing in the merch line. To the left of us was an empty stage and event floor. My daughters and I opted to forego the merch table for now and we took our position dead center, front row as we awaited Laura. She arrived just after 6p and was very warm with our group. She even recognized a couple of super-fans who had apparently attended other shows of Laura's in other cities for this same tour.
She proceeded directly toward the keyboard, behind from which she stood as she opened up her songbook (similar to Ally Dawson's character who also maintained her prized songbook). She said that at each of her concerts, she made it a point to sing one unreleased song. Further, as part of our Meet and Greet experience, we were being treated to an extra unreleased song. For our special song, Marano performed to 'Out Loud (You've Got Me)', a slow-tempo'd ballad which was very well received by tonight's crowd. Laura was very hospitable toward this VIP group and advised us that she would join us in the backroom behind the bar area for our meet and greet.
If you have the option to upgrade to the VIP experience, it is well worth the extremely low cost. In fact, knowing how much interaction we had with her, I would have gladly paid significantly more for these tickets. She hugged each of my daughters and myself, talked with us, recorded a video greeting for my wife who was unable to attend because she was in the Philippines, took several photos with us, and then signed some really nice-quality concert posters for us!! In all, we probably had about 4 minutes with her, which is about 3 minutes and 55 seconds more time than you normally have with most artists at their meet and greets (and they charge about double what Laura did). After leaving Laura, we were ushered back into the main room where we reclaimed our positions toward the center of the stage, front row.
Casey Conroy was tonight's opening act. She was pretty and had a captivatingly mesmerizing voice that reminded me of a Lana Del Ray meets The Cranberries situation, in terms of vocal style and sound. I would like to see her perform again in a similar intimate venue setting.
Tonight's second act was to be Mark Diamond. There was a buzz about him amongst tonight's audience as we waited after the meet and greet, with several fans saying how excited they were to see him perform live. But, as luck would have it, Mark apparently fell ill this evening and could not make it out to tonight's show. In shows previous to this one, each night Mark sang a duet with Laura during Laura's set, so that song ('Plus 1') would not be heard this night.
Laura ended up taking to the stage just around 9:30p, approximately 15 minutes ahead of when she was expected to come out as a result of Mark's illness. In between songs, Laura would give quick introductions leading into each song. The overarching theme of most of her ballads tonight was centered on a relatively recent breakup that she had. Now I don't follow her on social media and have not kept up so I'm really not sure who her ex was or what the circumstances were around their breakup, but the vulnerability she displayed when speaking about their breakup was extremely relatable, and the reaction from the rest of the crowd seemed to indicate that she had won over the hearts of all of those in attendance.
The sadness tonight extended beyond her breakup. For one of her songs 'Smoke Alarm' she described a time when her fire alarm went off, and she felt alone in this world. But despite the underlying sad theme, you didn't come out of tonight's show depressed. If anything, I felt motivated in seeing this young 26 year old seemingly finding herself and being secure and accepting to what her love life and heart had experienced. In her expressions and stories, I could reflect back to my younger days when I had listened to many of my friends describe similar situations and emotions with their love-life's.
With this being said, there were also alot of moments when she seemed to have a ton of fun while up on stage. She had a pretty fun time dancing to 'I Wanna Know What It's Like' and 'Boombox'. Where there were alot of similarities with her Ally Dawson Disney character, she seems to also recognize and embrace the 'adult' side of herself, which was freely on display as she danced around the stage for these two songs.
Something else to note with Laura's concerts: she has an arsenal of songs. For every city she performs in, she debuts a new song that hadn't yet been performed elsewhere on the tour. With Mark Diamond's illness cancelling out their scheduled duet for tonight, we were treated to the acoustic keyboard debut of 'Hot Mess', and also a keyboard-only version of 'Run'.
Concerts should provide an opportunity for the artist and their crowd to connect. Tonight's show epitomized that, and the audience gained many personal insights into the heart and soul of Laura Marano. Similarly, it felt as though Laura genuinely was drawing from the energy of this very appreciative and receptive audience tonight.
In contrast to her Disney television character, Laura is very in tune with the beautiful young lady that tonight's audience was hoping to see. She seems to have a very sincere passion toward songwriting and musical performance. Similar to her Ally Dawson character, Marano is very lovable, genuine, and entertaining to watch. This is an artist I would love to help support and whose career I would be happy to see grow. I'm not sure if she has aspirations to sell out arenas or not, as she seemed very comfortable and happy in the smaller intimate setting, perhaps because she could connect at a much more personal level with all in attendance.
I've watched many shows live, but this honestly will be one of my favorites and more memorable ones. For 5.5 hours, I felt like I was immersed in Laura's world and enjoyed being able to connect with her during the meet and greet, her soundcheck, and every single time she made eye-contact and smiled with my daughters during her concert.
Best wishes for your future Laura. Should you pass through Orlando again, this writer and his family will absolutely come out to watch you again!
Bailey Guinigundo
Casey Conroy: