Magma - Chicago 4/10/2015 @ Reggies

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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.