Magma US Dates!

Here’s a brief report on the San Francisco show at Slim’s, April 8, 2015:

In a word, fantastique! And I mean that as both fantastic and fantasy. The setlist looks like it was the same as LA a few nights earlier:

KÖHNTARKÖSZ

MËKANÏK DESTRUKTÏW KOMMANDÖH

ŠLAĞ TANZ

ZOMBIES

The audience was fairly diverse – people from their 20s/30s through 50s/60s. More women than I expected – maybe 30-40%. Mostly white, I saw one black guy and 3 or 4 asians including my wife and I. The most impressive thing to me about the audience was that there were very few taking pictures or video. I’ve been to other concerts, perhaps more pop or rock music, like La Roux or the Winery Dogs, where people use their cellphones to an annoying degree – some acts are even asking their audience to not take video but instead enjoy the music. I think MAGMA are so intense that either people forgot to use their cellphones, or most people just felt really involved in the music from the very start (myself included).

I have to say that Philippe Bussonnet is one of my all-time favorite Magma bassists (next would be Bernard Paganotti) and he did not disappoint! Incredible sound, incredible playing. James Mac Gaw played a fantastic solo during KÖHNTARKÖSZ – those breakdowns when it’s just drums/bass/guitar are my favorites! Of course Stella Vander and Isabelle Feuillebois were great, I was also impressed with (relatively) new singer Hervé Aknin. I also finally understood Benoît Alzaiary’s contributions on vibraphone. Christian Vander looked a bit older (last saw him about ten years ago) but his playing hasn’t lost any of its fire. 

ŠLAĞ TANZ and ZOMBIES both made more sense live - ŠLAĞ TANZ felt like doom metal in 5/4, while the bass was more prominent on ZOMBIES. Philippe Bussonnet can really groove and burn at the same time as all the other parts interlock above and around.