“Magic Band” York Duchess 14th March 2013

Always been a bit of a Beefheart fan and often toyed with the idea of seeing “The Magic Band” when they’ve toured but never got off me arse. The third part of my 3 different bands in less than a week adventure.

Arriving there half way through “Rory Motion”‘s set I was beginning to wish I’d stayed in the excellent Brigantes but it wasn’t too long until he buggered off and the Magic Band took to the stage. Right from the off they were blisteringly on form. The sound mix was fantastic the venue doing a great job there. I’d never seen a bunch of 60-something blokes bouncing all over the stage so much. One second “Drumbo” is leaning over the “mosh pit” singing into a fans face, the next he’s helping out on the drums, then he’s blasting out some clarinet – Mental.

We’re treated to heavy doses of Trout Mask and Clear Spot mainly. “Circumstances” sounding particularly good. And Rockette Morton’s bass solo was something I’ll never forget. Only downer was that the band didn’t appear onstage until 9.15 and then stopped for a break at 10 – Back on at 10:15 which was a bit of a pain as we had to run for the train at 10.35 so we only saw about 3 tracks of the second set. Itching to see them again !

Leave a Reply