Magic Key

So I saw Magic Key last Saturday at Burlington. All of the new work can only be caught live.  That is so fleeting to me. So I go see it. Its culture worth recognizing. But that only happens if enough people are impacted and perpetuate. The second I became a fan of Queen Adreena/ Katie Jane Garside it was out of one show in Whitby England. I craved hearing stories from friends that have seen her live multiple times. It seemed to me a colossal wrong not to know her in the States. I became intensely interested in her music, her story etc. She is among other things a road that connects from her cousin PJ....and we call her Siouxsie, but Katie Jane just calls her abuela. Fucking hell I was going somewhere with this then it ran off....So I'm glad to have the long view of Magic Key. Its just my impulse to document this concert by concert. I especially feel it when you know only a fraction of it is archived or otherwise recorded. Some shows like that from the iconic Katie Jane Garside, are just going to be that one iconic show that you saw because of a series of accidents. Out of that show a tremendous amount of influence.

  Magic Key is something I've seen deliberately multiple times and I think it represents well what is cool about Chicago music. That does not mean that Chicago necessarily knows her back as much. Well....I take that back. She has been written about in the Tribune I think. And I've seen her with very appreciative crowds...mostly at Empty Bottle but also in many other small to medium Chicago venues. It still feels as if I can only speak of her among a very few. Or I gotta get out more....right, that too. I don't listen to much outside of NPR right?  So I don't even know if they play her on radio.  It used to be just the powerful voice of Aleks, her intense Farsifa keyboard playing, in a knife fight with the drummer Deric Criss, short-fused psychedelia. Now under the name Magic Key. Aleks has a commanding stage presence. Her recorded music, tense, dark and in a rush but vivid enough to paint a picture you become more and more in wonder about. And her outfits were always the best...colorful. Always makes me wonder what she will wear next. Anyway now I dare not describe the electronic instruments that she plays. It's not just her banging a keyboard. The layers of atmosphere have multiplied. The pace slowed but the fog remains tense. But at least now there's a trail to hike. Still, hmmm, remember in Buffy, you don't go pissing off Willow by killing off her girlfriend and then go hiding in Twin Peaks. So it's tension feels dense with storytelling weight. Its amazing to see Magic Key manipulate the tension with layers upon layers and then minimally, slowing down with just her voice and limited instruments, with generous parking space between those instruments. We lost Fielded, but we still have Magic Key. There is music to anticipate from Magic Key. I don't know when, where or anything.Until then we only have May A Lightning Bolt Caress You. And we have a long journey from that point. Its something I cannot help but document.

Zig