Aug. 13, 1979 review: Magazine at the After Dark

 


You can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need.

Aug. 13, 1979 

‘Magazine’ Is Cure for Lack of ‘Cramps’

“You won’t believe the Cramps” – that was the advance notice on Festival East’s New Wave rock show in Lockport’s After Dark club Sunday night. But, alas, the zany New York City band met with delays on the road. No Cramps.

         It turned out to be an extraordinary night anyway. Festival East gave fans a double subscription to the headliner, Magazine, an arty new British band fronted by former Buzzcock Howard Devoto.

         In some ways, that was a better offer than the original. One set of Magazine wouldn’t have been enough. It took a second reading to expose the band’s best qualities.

         For the first half, Devoto’s pinched face, painted cheekbones and zombie-like vocals suggested David Bowie. The second time around, however, he summoned up a dramatic power that was very much his own – ripping the air with his fingers as he chanted: “Sometimes I forget we’re supposed to be in love.”

         It also took until the second set to bring out the full force of Dave Formula’s keyboards and John McGeoch’s guitar work.

         Both of them emerged from their initial roles of providing simple rhythm and distortion effects. McGeoch, in particular, enlivened proceedings with several breathtakingly nasty atonal solos.

         Response from the colorful Buffalo New Wave crowd of about 225 grew more and more enthusiastic. So did the mostly male troupe of pogo dancers, who jumped and tumbled wildly about the floor, just as if this were McVan’s.

         Devoto and band rewarded them with a double encore, blowing their minds once more with a funky, fractured version of Sly Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).” By that time, everybody had thoroughly forgotten about the Cramps.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Magazine in an undated photo from the late 1970s. Howard Devoto is the guy in the striped shirt.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Howard Devoto carried on in a variety of collaborations and solo album releases after Magazine broke up in 1981. The band regrouped from 2009 to 2011 and there even was a Buzzcocks reunion in 2012. Considered one of the most influential bands of all time, they left their mark on Simple Minds, who toured with them in 1979, as well as the Smiths and Radiohead. 

          An appearance by the Cramps would have been even more psychotic, needless to say. They finally came to Buffalo in 2003 to play the Sphere, which is now the Town Ballroom.

Setlist.fm doesn't say what Magazine played on that night in the After Dark. Here's what they did a week earlier on Aug. 4 at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, Mass.:

My Tulpa

Give Me Everything

Definitive Gaze

Back to Nature

Parade

Model Worker

Boredom

Permafrost

The Light Pours Out of Me

I Love You, You Big Dummy (Captain Beefheart cover)

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)

My Mind Ain't So Open

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