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Home » Music & Media » Concerts » M. Burwell, M. Hydes, N. Faraone (7th September 2025, Herdecke)
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M. Burwell, M. Hydes, N. Faraone (7th September 2025, Herdecke)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

I really loved Marissa Burwell’s sophomore album Before The Hour’s Up, when I reviewed it at the end of August 2025. The more I was flattered that just about ten days later, the Canadian artist had an intimate show not too far away from my residence Leverkusen. Here is my concert report from The Shakespeare Pub in Herdecke on 7th September 2025, where Marissa joined the stage with Merlin Hydes and Nicholas Faraone.

This posting comes with 286 major size pictures as part of the concert gallery.

 

The Shakespeare Pub – About The Venue

The Shakespeare Pub is located in the picturesque historic center of Herdecke in the German Ruhrgebiet. It is a music pub with multiple events each month. In line with that, the capacity is rather limited. There is typically no admission, but a donation to the artists is requested.

The train station of Herdecke, serving the Dortmund-Lüdenscheid line RB 52, is located slightly North of the city center, but still in walking distance. Additionally, you reach the venue by multiple bus lines serving the Herdecke-Mitte and Herdecke-Rathaus stops. There are a few parking opportunities around. Herdecke is just a short drive away from the A1 motorway.

 

Burwell / Hydes / Faraone – About The Artists

Marissa Burwell is a Canadian artist, who is originally from Regina in Sasketchewan. She is mixing folk, pop and indie elements to her singer-songwriter songs. She already played some major festivals in Europe as well, like the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg or Sound City in Liverpool.

Merlin Hydes is a Northern German artist, who is majorly doing blues and folk music. In 2024, he released his debut album In Plain Sight, followed by the February 2025 EP Way In Way Out.

It was very hard to find out anything about Nicholas Faraone. The US-American artist is living in Sweden nowadays. He is having a new project named Water Statues. Faraone is also part of the band Barbarisms. In 2021, I reviewed their album Zugzwang.

 

Burwell / Hydes / Faraone – The Show

When I arrived at the venue some 80 minutes before the show (quite in parallel with the musicians, by chance), there was a first shocker. The Shakespeare Pub was not prepared for a show on their small ground floor stage at all. Even though all the things could have been sorted out more or less (including accommodation for the musicians), this unfortunately meant that there was also hardly any audience. Bad luck for Marissa Burwell, who had the first set of the evening, surprisingly more or less right in time. Any of the three artists played slightly less than 30 minutes. Her set concentrated on her recent album, with songs like Tell Me When It Rains, Inside Out or Minneapolis early in the set. The title track of her 2025 record was the last song of her set, before a very brief stage intermission. I really liked her warm, nicely flowing storytelling, which matched the expectation of the album.

At around 20:05. Merlin Hydes entered the corner stage of the picturesque pub. His set was significantly more instrumental-driven than Burwell’s one. Despite he solely played the guitar, he created a lovely folk-blues groove sound with a lot of virtuosity in it. One of my favorite songs of his set was Maggies Farm from his 2024 In Plain Sight album. Overall, Hydes’ style was very individual and characteristic, which was finally the foundation for a really nice listen.

 

Faraone closing the set in Herdecke

Nicholas Faraone was the last artist in Herdecke, so that the gig was already done briefly before 21:00. He majorly concentrated on his Barbarisms songs and also had the Zugzwang vinyl at the merch table. The epic opener of that album, the seven minute I Want To Change My Mind was also the opener of his set. His songs rather took the evening back into a narrative singer-songwriter mood with good stories which are fun listening to.

 

Burwell / Hydes / Faraone – The Gallery

Here are 286 major size pictures of the show. They are located in the concert gallery:

 

Burwell / Hydes / Faraone – My View

Bad luck that the hosting pub on that evening simply forgot that they in fact have a gig on that evening. This intimate evening in Herdecke definitely deserved a higher audience. Each of the artists was characteristic and special in their very own way. The nice spread of sounds really made it a good experience. I would have loved the sets to be slightly longer – I guess they do so when there are less organisational issues.

 

Music – Ruhrgebiet

Here are all my Music & Media postings related to the Ruhrgebiet in Germany:

 

Travel Postings About Sweden

Here are all my Travel postings related to Sweden:

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