Bad Magic

Mr Kyps, Poole

On December 22nd, Bournemouth based hard-rock quartet Bad Magic supported Dirty DC at Poole’s Mr Kyps. Now, roughly seven months on, they’re back in the same venue supporting the same band, but everything’s different and it’s obvious how far they’ve come and achieved in those months.

When Bad Magic take to the stage with Loaded Gun, people still seem to be hanging around the bar and the side of the venue, not really getting into it. For most bands this would have been a major confidence stopper, only having a few people watch your set, but half way through people start to give their attention over to the piercing vocals of Chris Payn, scorching riffs performed by Rus Scagell and Scotty Parfett and the energy of drummer Andy L Smooth, and by the second song of their set, Get Out Of My Head, the floor is starting to fill up and people are moving away from the bar and coming inside.

The chemistry on stage is brilliant; the band show how much they love what their doing and how much they appreciate what theyíve got. Their passion shows strongly in their performance, and because the band are enjoying it and loving being there, it encourages the audience and makes them glad to be there too.

They then continue their set with a new song called Spent, which seems to get overall a good reaction from the audience, and sounds so well rehearsed and played with such confidence it doesn’t sound new, but like it’s been in their set for ages. By now not one person in the venue isn’t watching these guys do more than “warm up the crowd”, but are so scorching with their talent, energy and passion that there starts to be a bit of confusion on why these guys are the support act. The set continues with more of the band’s original songs, highlighting once again their talent as these songs sound as professional and well written as much larger, popular bands, making it hard to believe how young Bad Magic are. After performing songs such as I Hear You Calling, The Swing (The “Girl on Girl” song which always gets the crowd excited for some unknown reason) and Number One, they then play “Raise It”, one of the band’s most known and catchiest songs that has the whole crowd joining in and getting involved whether it’s just clapping, or dancing, or singing the lyrics right back at Chris who demands a reply with his vocals and stage antics.

After Roadkill, the set ends with another new-ish song, Trouble, and with the two new songs and upcoming slot in Upbeat Festival, the whole set is a live example on how far Bad Magic have come since December, and also a hint that you should watch them closely in the next few months.

Setlist
Loaded gun
Get out of my head
Spent (the new one)
I Hear You Calling
The swing
Number 1
Raise it
Roadkill
Trouble
Light it up

Band Links
http://www.reverbnation.com/allthisbadmagicCached
http://www.facebook.com/allthisbadmagic

Review By Bryanna Leigh.