The Magic Band – 08/12/13 –Borderline, London

The Magic Band – 08/12/13 –Borderline, London
Given that the Astoria, only a few metres away, was knocked down for the redevelopment of Tottenham Court road station and HS2, the survival of The Borderline is surprising, but welcome. It’s a basement club holding 300 sweaty people (even in winter), and along with the 100 Club, one of the last central London music venues. I can’t say I’ve ever had a bad night there, but it’s not a place I’d go to without good cause.
The reunited post-Beefheart Magic Band was definitely just cause. My recollections are hazy, but I recall they barely all fit on the stage (I think there were 6 people in the band at that point), and certainly not in the dressing room – they hung out by the stage between sets.
Of the music, I remember little – the setlist for that tour is full of titles I can’t immediately place, but many that I love.
I’ve just finished reading John ‘Drumbo’ French’s 900-page opus on his life in and around Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band. If you ever wanted to know exactly why you need to be in a band, then this is the book for you. If you ever wanted to be scared off joining a rock band, then this is also the book for you. It’s a tale of music, mental cruelty, starvation, psychedelia and the eternal battle to make a living in rock & roll when your front man is utterly unfit to be a touring musician.
Beyond that, I can only say that the music of the Magic Band, along with Zappa, and Grateful Dead is stuff I can never hear too often in concert, whether performed by the acts themselves or by tribute bands of a form I normally disdain. Give me a flurry of blues-based discordance over some neat little polyrhythms and I’m a very happy man!

PS - The Borderline will close this summer - the loss of another inner London venue