Music > Live Reviews

The Magic Band @ NAC

14/11/15

I admit it but I'm sure I'm not the only one. Back in my sixth form days, I claimed to like Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band but it was all a pose really. I didn't get it.  So, I am here with some trepidation.Given the abuse dished out by the late Don van Vliet during the recording of Trout Mask Replica, it is surprising that John "Drumbo" French and Mark "Rockette Morton" Boston want to revisit their time with The Magic Band but they do and have taken a new line-up on the road.Tonight, Boston isn't here, recuperating from major heart surgery, but French is, ably backed up by stand-in keys man Brian Havey, drummer Andrew Niven and Grandmothers of Invention guitarists Eric Klerks and Max Kutner.When they hit their groove, The Magic Band jam out a quite glorious bluesy, jazzy, rocky noise. And for most of the set, it is great. Sometimes, however, it does stray into the free-form jazzwank I have found so painful on vinyl. The hardcore fans will of course disagree and they are in hog heaven for the whole gig. As for me, I'm a casual observer and I enjoy most of this.This was an entertaining and for the most part enjoyable - if sonically challenging - evening. Live it makes far more sense than on vinyl and this was a fitting tribute to the twisted, difficult genius that was Mr van Vliet.

Then I get in the car, switch on the radio and any good feelings from the gig are swept away when I hear the news from a few hundred miles away and across the channel. Just like I went to NAC for an evening of good music, 1,500 people had gone to the  Bataclan Arts Centre for The Eagles of Death Metal. Others had gone to the Stade de France for a football friendly. Still others had gone to bars and restaurants. Instead of the good times they should've been having, they became caught up in a series of atrocities. All of this is just a few days after the suicide bombings in Lebanon, on top of the Russian airliner tragedy.This is not the forum for political grandstanding or for big political statements. The Paris attacks come two days after the anniversary of the ending of the war that was supposed to end all wars. There is some kind of grim irony in that. I don't know the answer or answers to what is going on but I am utterly sick of all the violence. Maybe my view is jaded but it seems that the human race is a horribly messed up excuse for a species, capable of moments of absolute beauty but also capable of creating far more moments of utter, utter horror.Please, people, stay safe and resist the seemingly inexorable slide into a new dark ages.8/10