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Sep 29, 2024 By Mark Redfern Photography by Wendy Lynch Redfern

Magdalena Bay produce synthesized sounds for a once possible future, music for the world of tomorrow that often sounds like it could be the product of yesteryear. For example, the ABBA-influenced “Cry For Me,” from the duo’s new album, Imaginal Disk, wouldn’t have sounded out of place playing in the background at The Snake Pit, Taffey Lewis’ club in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, a film made in 1982 but taking place in the then dystopian future of 2019. Before even releasing their 2021 debut album, Mercurial World, Magdalena Bay gained attention on TikTok, YouTube, and other social media platforms with their crazy self-produced music videos displaying Y2K aesthetics, modern relics from the dialup era.

This push and pull of decades is in full display on Imaginal Disk, a sci-fi concept album in the era of playlists, a concept that involves CDs being inserted into foreheads, among other fantastical ideas. Now that they are on a bigger label, Mom + Pop, the band’s videos may no longer be self-directed, but their DIY style remains and now they have more of a budget to realize their lofty ambitions. Imaginal Disk is surely a strong album of the year contender and, in fact, according to the users of the website Album of the Year (which gathers critics scores and votes from users), it is currently 2024’s best album thus far.

I first saw the Los Angeles-based duo (romantic partners Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin) when they performed at a tiny venue in Charlottesville, VA, The Southern Cafe and Music Hall, in 2021. My wife/co-publisher Wendy and I were there to do a photo shoot with the band for a print feature on Mercurial World and stuck around for the show. It was our first post-pandemic club show and Magdalena Bay weren’t even the headliners. They performed simply as a duo, with Tenenbaum singing and sometimes playing keyboards and Lewin on everything else, aided in part by pre-recorded music he triggered. Our daughter Rose was already a fan of the band, but we felt it wasn’t wise for her to attend the show because of COVID concerns. Instead the band wrote a little note to her on a scrap of paper she still has taped to her bedroom wall (we should really frame it).

Cut to September 2024, and Magdalena Bay are now playing a sold out headlining show at Washington, D.C.’s famed 9:30 Club. Despite it being a three-hour drive to D.C., the show was on a Saturday night, so we made a weekend of it and this time brought Rose, now 11. The venue was tightly packed, which was a bit overwhelming for Rose (the only other time she’d been to the 9:30 Club, for an equally sold out Jessie Ware show last year, we had a spot on the balcony railing). But we found a less trafficked area near the front of the stage to the left, near where Wendy could access the photo pit, and settled in for a treat.

Unlike their Charlottesville show, Magdalena Bay had a full band this time, as well as several costume changes and a video screen shaped like a standing mirror with wings. Before the band came on, a giant eyeball stared at the audience from the screen. The set opened with the first four songs from Imaginal Disk in order—“She Looked Like Me!,” “Killing Time,” “True Blue Interlude,” and “Image”—and it seemed like we might be in store for a full album run through, but then they began to seamlessly insert Mercurial World tracks into the setlist, starting with that album’s highlight “Secrets (Your Fire)” and “You Lose!” Still, the band did play every song from Imaginal Disk in the order of the album’s tracklist, with a few more Mercurial World songs (“Chaeri” and “Dreamcatching”) worked in. The only outlier was “Killshot,” the band’s 2019 single, which sounded a little out of place and dated, but does seem to be the band’s biggest song on both Spotify and YouTube, so it makes sense that they played it.

Tenenbaum was at first clad in the same blue outfit she wore in the “Image” video, complete with the blue makeup covering the top half of her face (a look sported on the faces of several fans in the audience). Various costume changes followed for Tenenbaum, including a floral headdress, a red outfit with planets hanging off it, an elaborate cape during “Cry For Me,” and a white leotard with a sheer skirt and white angel wings. At points she sang to a version of herself in the video screen, mirroring a moment in the “Death & Romance” video. There were other songs where she sang from a large chair on the stage. During “Secrets (Your Fire)” Tenenbaum played a keytar solo on her knees. During Lewin’s fantastic guitar solo in “That’s My Floor,” she was on her knees again, seemingly worshiping her partner. The feeling was mutual—when an audience member yelled out “I love you Mica!” Lewin cracked a smile.

The only possible complaint was that after performing the entire new album—concluding the main set with album-closer “The Ballad of Matt & Mica”—the band returned for only a one-song encore, performing Mercurial World closer “The Beginning.” While there was nothing left from Imaginal Disk to play, they could have also done several other Mercurial World highlights, such as “Domino” or “Hysterical Us,” or a track from 2023’s mini mix vol. 3 EP (such as “Wandering Eyes”). But such quibbles are akin to being fed an impressive feast and expecting a second dessert.

It seems likely that when Magdalena Bay return to our area they will level up again, with a bigger venue, an even more elaborate set, even more stunning costume changes, and a similar onstage mastery of their songs. We hope to be there for it.

www.imaginaldisk.world

Read our interview with Magdalena Bay on Mercurial World here.

Read our 9/10 review of Imaginal Disk here.

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