Magic Sword at Mississippi studios
Magic Sword at Mississippi Studios was everything I didn’t know I needed. I’ve been falling down a progressive rock and power metal rabbit hole lately trying to find something to inspire me to pick up the guitar and get out of a 10 year skill plateau. The fact that Magic Sword is a favorite band of the staff photographer, and that I happen to love synthesizers made this show a no-brainer. This magazine was going to be there.
Magic Sword sounds like an alien cyborg was dropped into The Never Ending Story and told to write a rock score for a video game. The set was hugely cinematic with a deep synthwave backbone. The members were fully cloaked and masked with different colored glowing eyes. They are incredibly talented musicians and played most of the arrangements live, which is a nice change of pace in a genre that often showcases pressing play on a laptop. The light show during the set was powerful and complemented by a sea of glowing swords handed out to the audience. Side note—this was one of the best audiences I’ve been a part of in awhile. No arms-crossed boredom in sight. Everyone was kind, excited, and genuinely just stoked to be out on a Tuesday. No surprise, I suppose, for this genre of music. It caters to a nice cross section of metalhead and nerd (no offence, I’m right there with you). These are some of the best people to be at a show with.
The whole experience was the kind of immersive show that I love. If I wanted to sit and listen to music with no visuals, I could turn on Spotify (or a less evil streaming service of your choice) and sit on the couch. Funny enough though, if you did choose to save the 30 bucks and sit at home on your couch, you wouldn’t get the same experience. You’d lack the visuals—obviously—but you also wouldn’t hear the same music. The songs they played live were clearly a different arrangement than those on the records. On the records they lean heavily toward the sci-fi fantasy, dark synthwave vibe, but live, they showcase a bit more energy and the kind of shreddy guitar that I was hoping for.
If I had to wrap the whole night up into one word it would be this: fun. Not very eloquent, I know, but when was the last time you described something as simply as “fun.” We all need more of that in our lives, so get off your couch and go to a show. If Magic Sword is available, definitely go to that one. Get inspired. Come home and pick up your guitar, or drum sticks, or burrito, or whatever makes you happy, and have some fun.
