Thalia Hall was originally designed and built in 1892 as an opera venue, but in 2013, was repurposed for medium crowds and the bands that come through Chicago. On Saturday September 14th and 15th were strictly reserved for two sold out shows of the synth pop stylings of Magdalena Bay. Originally from Miami Florida, Mica and Matthew, two high school friends who have found success in the electronic pop scene. Now coming to Chicago, hot off their second album Imaginal Disk, their live show was a technicolor spectacle full of costume changes and intricate story telling.
Before Magdalena Bay hit the stage though, the psychedelic indie electronica pop group Valgur, out of Mexico, got the crowd warmed up with their hypnotic and cryptic beats. While now blowing the crowd away, we definitely left being very intrigued for more Valgur in the future. Once it was time, the Florida duo entered the stage along with a few backing musicians to help with the more technical songs. The stage was set with an armchair and a sheet tightened around a loop with angel wings, mimicking a mirror. As the new album has a lot to do with mirror portals to other dimensions, this would make sense.
Once the band got going, it was a full on dance party. The mirror now had varying hypnotic imagery and copies of the band for some real mind-bending visuals to go with each song. The set was an impressive mix of tracks off their multiple EPs and albums that had the crowd jumping to the beat. Some of the crowd favorites were such songs as Chaeri, Death & Romance, Secrets and closing out the night with an encore performance of The Beginning.
Along with the music, there was a story element with the light visuals, and roughly 5-6 costume changes, with Mica herself, going into a chrysalis to reappear with wings and Matthew adorning the villainous star face from their music videos. They even found time to play an instrumental version of Feeling DiskInserted? Between costume changes. Magdalena Bay definitely rocked some great performances in Thalia hall those two nights. If you haven’t checked this band out, we’d highly recommend them, especially for their live performances.
Were you at the show? What’d you guys think? Imaginal Disk album of the year? Sound off in the comments!
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