THE
MAGIC BAND
Concorde
2, Brighton, Fri 1st March
As
I wrote in my little obituary to him a couple of years ago,
I would find it hard to overstate how much I am a fan of Captain
Beefheart and his deranged blend of blues, free jazz and psychedelia.
As Tom Waits said "Once you've
heard [him],it's hard to wash him out of your clothes. It stains,
like coffee or blood."
But
when the Magic Band reformed without their Captain a decade back
(after Beefheart had abandoned music), some fans were skeptical.
What's the point, they asked, the backing band without the star turn?
Which is to misconceive the whole thing...
Because
they were associated people assume Beefheart and Zappa worked in
similar ways. And true, both treated their musicians like the hired
help. But Zappa treated the Mothers like a modern employer –
demanding greater and greater efforts from them, then finally
replacing them with machines. Beefheart was more feudal, like a King
imagining his servants to be dependent on him when it was all the
other way around.
Ironically
even here a poster's on sale of the defining Beefheart image, the
'fish-face' front cover of 'Trout Mask Replica.'
Whereas my favourite photo has always been the back cover of that
album – which features the whole band (both below).
A somewhat
creative interpreter of the truth Beefheart told a litany of lies
around this over the years, including the entirely bogus claim that
he taught various band members to play from scratch. Yet he wasn't
band leader or composer so much as a guru of sound – conjuring up
impossible poetic notions, then expecting those around him to come up
with the tiresome business of translating his vision into actual
music.
The
chief translator of these astral visions into actual recordings was
probably the then-drummer John French (aka Drumbo), now stepping up
to be the front man. In short, these guys were not session musicians
and have the perfect right to perform the music they did so much to
create. (Disclaimer:
while alongside Drumbo old hands Rockette Morton and Feelers Rebo are
on board, the line-up's buttressed by newbies Eric Klerks and Craig
Bunch.)
Of
course, there's limitations. However good a singer and engaging a
stage presence Drumbo is, he can't really match
the charismatic derangement of the Captain. And the Captain's absence
does lead to indiscipline in the ranks. Without him, these master
players can concentrate on being musicians over and above playing the
music. Alas, why is it that “would you like to hear a bass solo?”
always turns out to be a rhetorical question. (Me, I don't even like
guitar solos!) On top of which, mindful of a venue curfew but keen to
provide a meet-and-greet, they split their set in half. This works
against momentum and means things don't really get
going until towards the end.
But
when it works, it truly is magic. Sensibly the set
circles the more difficult peaks of their repertoire such as
'Trout Mask', offering audiences a soft ascent and
concentrating more on later albums such as 'Spotlight
Kid' and 'Clear Spot.' (Though with
surprisingly few tracks from the early years, not even
'Electricity'.) When two of my favourite tracks,
'Owed t'Alex' and 'Moonlight in
Vermont' were played near-back-to-back, I truly thought my
little heart might burst for joy.
That
same day, the
Guardian ran an interview with Steve Reich – commenting
how his compositions were innovative and original without being
elitist and citing how he'd recently wowed a rowdy rock festival
audience in London. The Magic Band's music isn't much like Reich's -
but in that way maybe it is. Simultaneously free and beat-driven,
it's the left-field music you can dance to.
And
what could be better than that?
From
Preston about a year ago, tearing through 'Circumstances'.
(Looks like pretty much that whole gig is YouTubed, for those who'd
like to check it out.)
CALEXICO
The
Corn Exchange, Brighton, 19th
Feb
_1.jpg)
One
of the axioms of Lucid Frenzy is that art breeds best on the
borderlands. It works like cooking. Rustling up a meal, you don't go
searching for the perfect carrot or ideal onion. You mix
the ingredients, stir things up to get a good taste going.
So
Calexico are onto a good thing by naming themselves after a
Californian town on the Mexican border. They blend country and
Americana with Tex Mex, with several numbers sporting mariachi horns
and even a cover of Love's 'Alone Again Or' thrown
in. (Okay, Tex Mex doesn't hail from California. The band's actually
from Arizona. These are musical borders they're
based in, okay?) Band members swap instruments with such impunity you
wonder if it's all some sort of pass-the-parcel game, where you play
whatever you're passed once the music starts.
It
all ticks so many boxes, yet I find myself wanting to like it all
slightly more than I do. There are points which strike you straight
between the eyes. But there's other points which don't. There's
points where things roll amicably along and while you like
it enough you feel it's within them to make you love
it. You can't really predict when those moments will strike next,
with several tracks running on neutral then suddenly breaking into
the most enthralling coda. The result is a set which kept grabbing at
your attention without ever quite keeping hold of it. It's a band you
only really need to hear the best of.
The
band do seem to excel in design and packaging, check out their website
to see what I mean.
Afraid
this clip does break off before the end of the track...
RICHARD
THOMPSON
Brighton
Dome, 22nd
Feb
Four
Eyed Gav went to see folk legend Richard Thompson again. Four Eyed
Gav loved Richard Thompson just as much as any other time he's been
to see Richard Thompson. But Four Eyed Gav felt there
wasn't really much extra for him to say after the last time.
So please just watch the clip instead.
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