Borderline Magenta

I, Melachi ibn Amillar, being of unsound mind and body, did attend the Magenta gig at the Borderline, London, on 8 September 2012. It was the first band heard by myself of the 2012/13 season, indeed since Black Sabbath at Donington Park, so there was something for them to live up to. The first band was Alan Reed, actually an acoustic guitar with an electric keyboard player. The songs he played were rather long and involved for an acoustic treatment, which is generally used for fairly simple melodies and heartfelt lyrics. Some of the exposed vocals were slightly painful, and I am not sure what possessed him to finish with an acoustic treatment of Peter Gabriel's "Biko" (as I could never quite work out why Peter Gabriel himself used to finish with it). However, he did say he had some CDs available with the songs played by a full band, and that these would sound different (for which I read, better).

The gigs of Prog are possibly the least stylish of all possible events (indeed, the only other non-balding person there was a lady scribbling in a reporters notebook), but since the lead guitarist of Magenta made the effort to wear a natty red tie, let the annals record that Melachi was wearing drainpipe jeans, in black, Clarks goretex boots, in black, an Electric Wizard T-shirt, predominantly black, topped off with a collared shirt, left open, in a fetching shade of black. Magenta clearly have that Prog choppy rhythm well sorted, the guitarist being excellent in all respects, other than the tie, using brief explosions of appeggios to mark the entries, in the style of Yes or IQ.  Their lead singer had, I think, a bit of an issue with rhythmic attack, and tended to bend the notes a lot, in the manner of a cabaret singer; more seriously she seemed to be singing to herself most of the time, sometimes with her eyes shut. She might work at slower and more directed movements, taking command of the stage, and being present for all the audience, particularly in such a small venue. She seemed more an accompanist to the guitarist. A few riffs would have added some variety and the singer could have strapped on a rhythm guitar to get some more meat into the instrumental sections. Nevertheless, they were almost there and I, Melachi, enjoyed this gig and would not mind seeing them again.