“Mekanik Kommandoh” by Magma
From the 1973 album Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh
Where to begin when discussing Magma? I used to have my own Magma fan site back in the early days of the web, but right now a quick look at Wikipedia is a good place to start.
I saw Magma live in Chicago in 1999 at a tiny club where I was less than 5 feet from the stage, within sweat-spray distance of Christian Vander, and it was incredible (sweat notwithstanding). Christian Vander has, over the years, become a jazz fusion elder statesman in France, kind of like Miles Davis was in his later years — the ultimate test of an up-and-coming musician is to be selected to join his band. So when I saw Magma, it was not really the old Magma; only Christian and his wife Stella Vander remained. But the young musicians he surrounded himself with carried on the spirit of the earlier lineups and played with a ferocity worthy of the material they were tasked with performing.
This video is quite possibly my favorite find yet on YouTube (first discussed here). It’s from 2006, and features much of the same lineup I saw seven years earlier, but with the welcome return of two ’70s Magma legends: vocalist Klaus Blasquiz and bassist Jannick Top. It is, quite simply, awe-inspiring. Enjoy.
Come on—you have to write about what else happened at that concert…
OK, fine. There was this totally wasted, total douchebag standing right in front of me, repeatedly stumbling backwards into me as he thrust his fist (and beer) into the air after every song screaming “The Last Seven Minutes”! (Yes, that’s a Magma song, and no, a bona fide Magma fan would not be demanding it with such vehemence.)
Finally I got fed up and shoved him as hard as I could. He fell on the ground. After that, even though the club was totally packed, I had a 2-foot radius of open floor around me for the rest of the show.
It was the one marginally badass moment in my entire life. (I said “marginally.”)