Magic Christian - Babylon, Ottawa, 17/1/2009
by Andrew Carver
published: 10 / 1 / 2009
intro
Magic Christian are a garage rock/power pop supergroup which includes in its line-up the Flamin’ Groovies Cyril Jordan, Blondie's Clem Burke and the Plimsouls’ Eddie Munoz. Anthony Strutt watches them play a short, but fiery set of original tunes and covers at the Ottawa Babylon
Canada appears to be going through a power-pop renaissance, with bands like Statues, Mother’s Children and Sonic Avenues (to say nothing of longstanding genre kingpins Sloan) wowing live audiences with a sound that looks back to the power pop of Big Star, the Nerves, the Raspberries, Shoes, the Romantics, the Plimsouls and the Flamin’ Groovies. Thus, it was a meeting of past and present (and possibly future) when two capable modern-day combos, the aforementioned Mother’s Children and Sonic Avenues, shared a stage with a band stacked with veterans of groups that inspired them. Unfortunately Magic Christian chose to roll through town at a time that a strike had shut down all public transit and a flood of Arctic air had lowered the temperature to -20C (it got colder at night), and the audience of about 70 was not what one would expect for a band counting Flamin’ Groovie Cyril Jordan, Blondie drummer Clem Burke and the Plimsouls’ Eddie Munoz, but what it lacked in size it made up for in enthusiasm. Sonic Avenues kicked thing off. The Montreal quartet favour the punk-influenced power pop of late-‘seventies groups like the Buzzcocks, but know enough of their musical history to throw a cover of ‘River Deep Mountain High’ on their set list. They might have played it too, if only the clock hadn’t been ticking ever closer to midnight when their set began – an earlier show by Virginian hip hop duo Clipse having run late. Ottawa’s Mother’s Children tore through their own set of Stones and Kinks-influenced pop, and did manage to get around to a cover of ‘Til the End of the Day’ before time demands whisked them away. Magic Christian includes not only a trio of veteran musicians, but a man who breathes musical fandom from his shoulder-length mop top and Nehru jacket to his pointy Beatle boots, Paul Kopf. Twisting and turning, shaking a tambourine and affecting an appropriately Jagger-esque pout. Jordan was toting his iconic Ampeg guitar – the same model, if not the same instrument, seen-through on the cover of the Groovies’ ‘Teenage Head’. Munoz, shifted over onto bass bounced up and down in his Chuck Taylor sneakers. As one would expect, Burke - sporting a CBGB T-shirt - was a stellar drummer. The band dishes out a brisk, all too brief set of garage-rock-cum-power-pop (including a cover of the Who’s Out In The Street’, with a throbbing cover of ‘Teenage Head’ a particular highlight. For an encore they tore through a new tune 'The Real Thing', which sounds quite a bit like the Blues Magoos' chestnut ‘Down By The River’, and capped it all of with the immortal ‘Shake Some Action’, an appropriate end to an-all-too-short set of prime teenage rock.
Picture Gallery:-
most viewed articles
current edition
Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies - Sala Apolo, Barcelona, 29/11/2023 and La Paqui, Madrid, 30/11/2023Anthony Phillips - Interview
Difford and Tilbrook - Difford and Tilbrook
Rain Parade - Interview
Oldfield Youth Club - Interview
Autumn 1904 - Interview
Shaw's Trailer Park - Interview
Cafe No. 9, Sheffield and Grass Roots Venues - Comment
Chris Hludzik - Vinyl Stories
Pete Berwick - ‘Too Wild to Tame’: The story of the Boyzz:
previous editions
Microdisney - The Clock Comes Down the StairsWorld Party - Interview
World Party - Interview with Karl Wallinger
Heavenly - P.U.N.K. Girl EP
Ain't That Always The Way - Alan Horne After The Sound of Young Scotland 2
Steve Harley - Interview
Dwina Gibb - Interview
Ruts - Life After Death ? : A Profile
Joy Division - The Image That Made Me Weep
Leprous - Photoscapes
most viewed reviews
current edition
Serious Sam Barrett - A Drop of the Morning DewMarika Hackman - Big Sigh
Rod Stewart and Jools Holland - Swing Fever
Loves - True Love: The Most of The Loves
Ian M Bailey - We Live in Strange Times
Paul McCartney and Wings - Band on the Run
Autumn 1904 - Tales of Innocence
Roberta Flack - Lost Takes
Banter - Heroes
Posey Hill - No Clear Place to Fall
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart