That’s right, I went to see MAGIC!, makers of the mind numbing earworm “Rude.” You know, the one that kind of makes you side with the guy in the song who doesn’t want his daughter to get married to that dude? Yes, those guys, and yes, I saw them on purpose, walking out of the last bit of an epic, grandiose set by Mercury Rev to see what the Toronto pop-reggae band is all about. What can I say? Curiosity got the best of me and I’m easily distracted.
It was pretty much what I expected – slick and commercial sounding, but the crowd seemed to be into it I guess, especially backpack bro standing next to me who was skanking pretty heavily during their set. With his backpack still on, of course. As you’d expect, they closed out their set with “Rude” and also threw in a few cover tunes, which was good since it meant I didn’t have to hear too many of their own songs. Their cover of The Police’s “Message In A Bottle” was kind of fun, if a bit obvious. Much less obvious was their cover of “Blitzkrieg Bop,” which they announced they’d be playing the following night at The Grammy Museum’s tribute concert for The Ramones. I’m not really sure who was involved with the decision making process at the Grammy Museum and why they thought it would be a good idea to invite the lite-reggae band to perform it in the first place. Were none of the gospel acts playing SXSW available to do a cover of “I’m Not Jesus” instead? To be fair, MAGIC! were having fun with it and it’s pretty hard to screw up that song too much, but they pretty much make for the world’s least convincing punk band.