Magma - Chicago 4/10/2015 @ Reggies

Love reading these reviews--especially the details and impressions. I found out too late to see them in Chicago--"Sold Out" was all I could find. They are one of the VERY few bands that I would love to see before I (or they) die. Oh, well. Bent Knee next summer will have to do . . . 

I won't start a new thread for this but I saw Magma on Thursday 7th May in Manchester, UK.  (Set list - Kohntarkosz, MDK, Sl*g Tanz - encore: Zombies)  I think all the sentiments for the above US dates have already been expressed.  It was a superb evening.  As the band stood in silence at the beginning someone cried out 'It's great to see you again' - the band smiled and Stella explained later that this was Magma's first Manchester gig since 1974!  I can't decide the best bits - I was just mesmerised throughout.  I worry that this 'Endless Tour' may well be their last...

bhikkhu wrote: I was in Chicago too! Had my 12 year old son with me. His first concert ever and he loved it!

tell me that he (like me) developed a crushing LUST for Stella Vander and Uncle Micky will be a proud Uncle.

bhikkhu wrote: The Neck Romancer wrote: bhikkhu wrote: I was in Chicago too! Had my 12 year old son with me. His first concert ever and he loved it! Poor boy! Now each and every concert he'll watch will be judged in comparison to his first!  Oh, don't I know it. Get this, the next night we saw Primus and the Chocolate Factory. He is forever spoiled.

bhikkhu wrote: I was in Chicago too! Had my 12 year old son with me. His first concert ever and he loved it!

bucka001 wrote: hieronymous wrote: Jello Biafra introduced Magma at the San Francisco show! I had never heard that he was a fan.    Wow, cool! I didn't know that. Yeah, JB is a fan of more off-the-wall prog. He likes VdGG and Hawkwind. Magma is his fave, though. Do you remember what his intro was like (what he said, etc)? That's too cool.   I have an issue of Rock N Reel (a glossy Brit music mag that actually was carried in the U.S.; sadly no longer printed) from a few years ago with an article titled Punk vs. Prog. It was one of these "In this corner, we have Peter Hammill representing prog; in this corner we have Jello Biafra representing punk..." But the article didn't go the way you'd think. Hammill didn't group VdGG in with the rest of prog, and Biafra is a VdGG fan (he also talked about Magma and Hawkwind in the article, and differentiated all three bands from the sort of prog he didn't like [Yes, ELP, etc]).

To tell the truth, I didn't know who he was - this normal looking guy, maybe in his 50s, came out and said something like, "I don't know why I'm up here to introduce this band" - I honestly can't remember details, I think he said something about going to see them live - maybe San Francisco 1999 or 2000? - and I really don't remember anything else. It wasn't until later that someone I know on Facebook who was at the show said that it was Jello Biafra. I was near the front for the whole show, and noticed him right near us towards the end, but I don't think he was there the whole time. It was kind of cool actually, it's alright that I didn't know because I never listened to them and I could experience him as a person instead of as "Jello Biafra."

I'm sorry - I wish I remembered more!

Agreed. It was amazing and loud as you stated. Highly worth the money I spent.

hieronymous wrote: Jello Biafra introduced Magma at the San Francisco show! I had never heard that he was a fan.

Edited by bucka001 - April 14 2015 at 14:13

Yeah, I started listening to the old stuff again and it's great. As far as the crowd (and the 'hip' young factor), it's hard to say that it's simply down to quality music, because one man's meat is another man's poison. To me, quality is Magma, VdGG, Can, Beefheart... the less mainstream stuff than "normal" prog (whatever that is) but many of those bands have people screaming and running for the exits. But I do know that PFM (which, to me, is more mainstream prog) played the same venue last year as Magma in Chicago and didn't draw very well at all. I doubt that some of the other prog acts that weren't 'mega' back in the day the way Yes, Genesis, ELP, etc were, would draw as well either.

I saw Magma in Chicago a few nights ago and was absolutely blown away. I was reminded of a line I wrote for a Hammill/VdGG 'zine in '90, upon first seeing PH. Something to the effect of, "No album, video, or bootleg tape can do justice to this man's voice - I had high expectations and they were met times five." In Magma's case, my high expectations were shattered. I was not prepared for how *mammoth* and *powerful* they were. A few observations...

-- I splurged for the $50 chair up front. Glad I did. I was second row, right behind Strawberry Bricks, with a perfect sight line to CV (who was only like 15 feet away). There were only about 30 or 40 chairs, the rest of the crowd had to stand. I think that would have detracted ever so slightly from my enjoyment; this was like having Magma in my living room.

-- They were LOUD. In my own band I wear earplugs (as a drummer, no one's closer to the snare pop than I am) but I didn't wear them for this gig. My ears were ringing for two days afterwards. No regrets.

-- The vox were *on*. At live gigs, there are always a few moments where it sounds just a little flat or sharp or off somehow. I would be cool with that, especially at a gig like this where the demands on singing are high. But all three vocalists were flawless. I couldn't believe how beautiful Stella's singing still is. And then when CV did his part in the middle of MDK (a section which serves the same function as Hhai and a few others) I was just flabbergasted. His voice is still so frickin' POWERFUL. That was just an immense surpise. He sounded fantastic.

-- The music was just majestic, powerful, and brilliant. No other way to put it. I grew up with Kontarkohz (at least since my high school days) and have loved MDK for years. The musicians were phenomenal, and I'm glad that besides the standard guitar / bass guitar instrumentation, they went traditional with the vibes and a keyboardist *who just played the Rhodes Piano*. No synths (thank heaven).

-- THE CROWD!! This was a huge surprise to me. I knew it was sold out, so the packed-out nature of the gig didn't surprise me, but I wasn't expecting the *type* of crowd that there was. A very healthy portion of the capacity audience was made up of fans in there 20s and 30s, with lots of females. And they knew the material and were totally into it. Can't figure that one out. I know that 'prog' is a bit less of a dirty word these days, but Magma will never be on the cover of PROG magazine so I don't think they're riding the prog resurgence (however powerful that is). I just can't figure it out. In '09, VdGG drew a similarly healthy crowd (numbers-wise) to the Abbey in Chicago, but truth be told, there were certainly younger people in the crowd, but from what I remember the majority were people in their 40s at least. I know Goblin packs out houses with a wide age range, but that's more to do with the Dario Argento / horror film thing. Don't know why Magma has this type of crowd now, but that is really awesome that it's the case.

-- I wore my black VdGG tee shirt (classic logo) and was stopped by tons of people who loved the band. It makes sense to me that there would be a huge crossover of fans for those two bands.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I was so happy when CV took a solo vocal spot during MDK. The one thing that I don't go for in all of the old Magma videos I have or have seen, is the long solo instrumental sections slotted into MDK and other tunes. Meh. But, there was none of that in Chicago; it was replaced by CV's singing and it was phenomenal.