Gigs' Reviews : Rock à la Buse 2019 : Prologs. Riske Zero, the Magnetix

When we left Reims for Reunion island in 2009, one thing annoyed us a lot : the lack of rock'n'roll, punk and garage shows... We didn't know Gaël, Pascale and Appollo were in the place !! They managed over a 10 years' time to bring together all the local punk, garage, hardcore, post/synth-punk, rock'n'roll bands under their own pirates' banner, releasing compilations and albums with their Maudit Tangue Records x label, setting up gigs and rock-linked movie pictures shows with their association La Ravine des Roques x and organizing every year the great Rock à La Buse x festival.

They widened the musical program of this event and organized the touring of awesome French bands from the mainland (Frustration, Magnetix, Le Prince Harry, Double Nelson, La Colonie de Vacances, Washinghton Dead Cats...) and the Indian Ocean area (The Make-Overs, Mouse, Black Math, The Black Lungs, Dizzy Brains...).

This 2-days festival usually takes place at La Cité des Arts. This is a huge, public funding structure dedicated to culture, music and performances, with art exhibitions, artists' residency , bars, restaurants and a pretty big place for live shows : Le Palaxa. 

They have taken the high road for a few years! With the partnership of the comics' magazine Le Cri du Margouillat x, they always settle comics' art exhibitions, open air gigs, vinyls' flea market... On the top of that, the Palaxa's live shows are supported by local and international comics' drawers, whose real-time performance is projected on a large screen.

The guest bands always play additional shows in small bars in the previous and following weeks of the main event..

Magnetix + Riske Zero - Sunday, the 10th of March 2019 - Rondavelle des Filaos, St Leu

Tonight, Magnetix and Riske Zero are opening the festival at the JP's Rondavelle des Filaos. Again one of those stunning Sundays' evening sunset time on the waterfront of Saint Leu, with mixed people, families, chidren, tourists, hippies, rockers, rastas... and the tasty falafels' stand. An awesome place to watch them play!

Riske Zero x plays first. This is a local band that is pretty easy to catch live here and there around Reunion island. A classic trio (drums, bass and guitarist/singer, sometimes with an additional guitarist) that plays a pretty good mix of post-hardcore/noise, in the same vein as Fugazi, Girls Against Boys, At the Drive-In... Foot to the floor tempo intersected with resting breaks, catchy guitar riffs, loud and rolling bass sound, noisy guitar add-ons and always that furious desire for headbanging. The Spanish lyrics add an exotic touch to the thing.

Maudit Tangue Records released their first Cd album and a few tunes on its compilations. Riske Zero x also managed to widen its own network since it organized tours in Spain, France and Australia over the last few years.

A good warm-up for the next band : Magnetix !

The Magnetix x from Bordeaux ! That band always reminds me that jaunt in Brussels I made with my girlfriend. They were playing with Frustration and Cheveu in a huge empty tube-station under the banner of Born Bad Records. Lots of people, flooding beers, loud music and there was outside that crazy line of drunk people in a need for a urgent throw up. She was 6-monthes pregnant, the baby in her belly didn't bear that much Magnetix loud music and my girlfriend also had to deal with that kind of emergency... Everybody around was just astounded to look at that pregnant girl alongside with throwing up drunk people. Something out of the line... The final conclusion : we stopped going to shows for a while... Kids ! Who'd have them ?

More than 15 years have elapsed since their first releases with the Flame On, Yakisakana & Nasty Records crews. They released their following records on great garage labels ( Slovenly, Kizmiaz, Shit in Can, Every Night is a Saturday Night...) and finally landed on the famous Born Bad Records x label for a couple of albums. One of the best French garage band of the 00's.

They played on the main stage of the 2018 Rock à la Buse festival last year and had an additional show at the Namasté bar in Saint Leu. They're now coming back for the 2019's edition as a backing band for King Khan's new band : Louder Than Death x. 

Magnetix x, that's the perfect name for this completely attractive band. The girly drummer's (Agnès) play is hypnotic, the robust lead singer/guitarist (Looch Vibrato) is impressive. The duo plays stylish garage music with adequate lo-fi sequences and a few touches of noisy reverberations and feedbacks. The audience is caught and local punks and surfers dance a few pogos... Garage at its best for an awesome show !! A few movie captures here : x x x

They were also involved in many good garage bands in Bordeaux' area: Complication, Les Jakes, the Hero-X, Avenue Z... Looch Vibrato also plays in a stand-alone folk project, Lucien Vibration.