The Magic Numbers, Horsebox, Mr Hudson and the Library - Buffalo Bar, London - Thursday 28th September 2006

This gig was a really special one. The Buffalo Bar holds no more than 150 people, and the Magic Numbers are now well accustomed to playing in places many times the size. The fact that it happened at all was to celebrate rockfeedback.com's 6th birthday. They run (almost) monthly club nights at the Buffalo Bar, and were in part responsible for giving the Magic Numbers a hand up to fame. The quality of bands that play this club night is incredible, with Dirty Pretty Things, Razorlight, Bloc Party, The Subways, and others, all gracing it on their way up.

The first band of the night were Mr Hudson & The Library. A band comprised of several black men and women, with varying degrees of wild hair (including one guy with a truly special afro); along with the palest albino singer you could ever see. They played a mixture of reggae/rap/hip hop, with indie vocals on top. One song even had a steel drum, which sounded great. It was all OK, but I couldn't help thinking that this is primarily a live band - I suspect that they would sound nowhere near as good when recorded.

Next up were Horsebox, a 5 piece band with a London-accented singer. Their songs ranged between being very good, catchy punky pop tunes, and being a bit boring - there wasn't really anything in between. The good songs did indeed sound absolutely great, but there were some dodgy ones in there.

Just after 11pm, the Magic Numbers walked on stage and went immediately into a new song called This Is A Song. I took up a position at the side of the stage, and had a great view of both band and audience throughout. It really was amazing to be so close to such a great band, in such an intimate venue. There was typical Magic Numbers friendliness, and it seemed like a homecoming gig for the band. The set featured a lot of new songs, interspersed generously with older songs, and the band played for about an hour and a half. Of the new songs, the faster, more upbeat ones sounded fantastic, but then those are my favourite type of Magic Numbers songs anyway. The slower, quieter songs were OK, but I think the band are much better when they are doing the happy stuff!

A priviledge to be there tonight, I will definitely be going back to the Rockfeedback club nights, although going to work the next day with a hangover is not appreciated!