Magdalena Bay at the Sinclair 2/17
I came to know the California-based pop duo Magdalena Bay just after missing them open for electronic musician George Clanton in October of last year in Boston. Boston’s very own Sinclair was the first stop of 2022 on the duo’s first headlining tour, which will conclude this summer at This Ain’t No Picnic Festival in Pasadena. On this uncharacteristically temperate February night, crowds swarmed to see the duo perform, lining up around the venue’s cobblestoned alleyway.
Opener Cecile Believe charmed the crowd with a stellar performance of impressive vocals and memorable moves. Out of desperation to wrap our heads around the enigmatic character that is Cecile Believe, my friends and I came up with at least five comparisons, but none of them could quite capture what we were experiencing. We landed somewhere in between Kali Uchis and Caroline Polachek with a Kate Bush vocal leaning. “Show Me What,” Believe’s feature track on producer A.G. Cook’s album, 7G was a highlight of the show, and an opportunity for Believe to show her range as a musician and collaborator. I’ve probably spent more time thinking about her bedazzled camo platform Crocs than is healthy for the average adult.
I’ve always been impartial to concert setlists in general but when Magdalena Bay played the album, Mercurial World from top to bottom, I realized the beauty of its order. We started, naturally, with “The End,” kicking off the otherworldly performance to come. Following the structure of the album allowed for their creative interpretation of Mercurial World, which unfolded into a dream-like universe right out of a video game. From space suit-like costumes to their campy desktop computer, the 16-track show was literally what y2k dreams are made of.
Chaeri, a character of Mercurial World, came alive on stage in animatronic form. The band introduced their robot friend as another performer on stage, singing the opening line to the duo’s incredibly catchy “Domino.” While their performance stayed true to the recorded version, the duo took liberties with how they demonstrated electronic sounds on stage. Another highlight was “Follow The Leader” when Mica strapped on a bunny mask to sing the strange and mechanical chorus: “Follow the leader, the rabbit. You need it, you love it.”
After we reached “The Beginning,” Matt and Mica gave us a short and sweet throwback three-song encore bringing us back to their older stuff. The duo ended with a bang, closing the show with the delightfully pop-y “Good Intentions.”
Magdalena Bay in concert was a dream come true. A video-game y2k celestial fever dream come true. It was probably the closest I’ll come to astral projection, in the Boston area at least. When they come back to Boston, I’ll be the first to return.
