7

Magik Markers lose the point

Magik Markers were tucked away around the corner at Primavera but with a fair amount of press and praise, a little bit of walking wasn’t going to put people off from seeing the set. By the end of the first number, a large chunk of these people must have wished they hadn’t bothered. The opening track was an absolute dirge, so much so that you think the act must have been deliberately testing the crowd. Things certainly improved after this number but in trying to appeal to a festival audience, is it a bit much to ask that the band plays the game a bit? Mind you, Primavera is one of the more eclectic line-ups and with a ringing endorsement from Sonic Youth, Magik Markers probably don’t need to tailor their sound too much.

From the second song onwards, things improved a lot with the off-kilter vocals and organ sound being central to the show. It was a bit bewildering watching this type of show in bright sunshine with the ocean just to the left of the crowd but the band almost seemed to revel in the confusion.

It was difficult to predict where the set was going and the front girl was easily defined as erratic. She was lurching between being enjoyable one moment to unnerving the next and usually with no warning or indication of what was coming next. There was a slight irony when she dedicated a song to being in love with someone, only to find out that rather than being okay, they had a screw loose. This seems to be a very apt description for her and her band.

The set was jaggy and challenging, when it was good it was great but far too often it was never cohesive enough to be truly definable.