Magdalena Bay’s experimental prog pop never fails to enthral on their debut UK tour

It was never surprising to see Magdalena Bay put out an album such as Imaginal Disk – when Tenenbaum and Lewin met in high school over a decade ago, they bonded over a love for proggier sounds and were in the band Tabula Rasa together. Magdalena Bay invited a shift to pop, and the duo certainly know their way around a pop song, while Imaginal Disk feels like a happy medium between pop accessibility and prog experimentation. It’s the sort of pop music that audiences want in 2024; the year of Brat summer and high-quality theatrical performers such as Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter, and their rise in popularity speaks for itself.

Comprising couple Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin, Magdalena Bay were formed in Miami and are based in Los Angeles (by way of Argentina, where Tenenbaum was born and Lewin is descended from on his father’s side) and were set to play smaller venues on their first time touring the UK. Demand, however, has meant some pretty eye-catching venue upgrades. In truth, it’s hard to believe that this show at Manchester Academy is their first time playing a UK show outside of London. Originally set to play at The Pink Room, with a capacity of 250, it turns out they can sell out a venue over ten times the size on a cold Friday evening.

With no support act, the duo begin the show at 7pm – a smiley face on the side of the stage greeting them – and it’s all wrapped up by 8:30pm, allowing fans to head to the pub/watch the Big Brother final/relieve the babysitter (delete as appropriate). Tenenbaum welcomes the audience to the duo’s “magical mystery tour,” and it’s clear the next hour and a half is going to be an ~experience~.

There’s no one doing it quite like Magdalena Bay at the moment. Charli XCX is a big influence, and there’s plenty of hyperpop in their sound, but there are also hints of Brit staples such as Electric Light Orchestra and Kate Bush, and even Manchester’s own Everything Everything, combining for something as unique as you can really get without moving out of the realms of pop. And similar to a more unorthodox The Killers or Kings of Leon, they’re a band that you could definitely come to see as spiritually British, or honourary Brits. Their aesthetics are wonderfully futuristic and otherworldly, with all sorts of symbols and visuals behind them as they perform – a mirror with wings, a pair of hands – and Tenenbaum even dons sunflower headgear for “Vampire in the Corner.” In music videos and indeed live, Tenenbaum portrays Imaginal Disk’s alien, True, and from “True Blue Interlude” – third on the setlist – it’s clear that we’re in their world now.

Lewin told BEST FIT in August that it would be a positive for them to be seen as an alternative band than a pop band, but in truth, they’re somewhere between the two – they’re pop in the way that, say, Grimes or Caroline Polachek are pop, but they can get pretty damn heavy live. The breakdown near the end of “Tunnel Vision” is one of the heaviest things you’ll see an ostensibly pop band do at a live show – their prog leanings are on full display here – while tracks from debut album Mercurial World, such as “You Lose!” and “Dreamcatching,” which almost veers into hair metal territory, get quite intense, too.

Tracks such as the interlude “Fear & Sex,” and “Chaeri,” with its animated Europop leanings, lean more towards the pop end of the spectrum. “We’re gonna try doing something together now!” Tenenbaum tells the crowd, before the outro of “Three, four, down to the floor.” Tenenbaum owns the stage throughout – not that Lewin, for his part, goes under the radar – with her enthralling presence. In truth, there could be a little more crowd interaction. There’s so much Magdalena Bay lore, and we’re invited into their world, but it can at times feel more like a passing visit than an invitation to pull up a chair. Not that this dedicated army of predominantly young fans are too bothered, mind you – the music, and Tenenbaum’s on-stage activity, work overtime and you’re almost left breathless simply taking everything in.

While the setlist shapeshifts around Mercurial World and Imaginal Disk, they make it work. Essentially, they’re working their way through Imaginal Disk, with some old favourites slotting in where appropriate. They never feel like uninvited guests or risk disrupting the flow, and everything has its place. It’s almost more difficult to formulate a setlist a couple of albums in than it is when you’re five or six LPs down the line or a legacy act, but not once do things feel stilted.

“Killshot,” from their 2020 EP A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling, has enjoyed plenty of TikTok virality, and it’s something they lean into by slowing it down and speeding it up – it’s sandwiched between Imaginal Disk’s “Cry For Me,” anthemic and euphoric in equal measure, and the aforementioned “Dreamcatching,” feeling like an exploration of their journey in microcosm.

It’s still striking to see the duo sell out such a comparatively large venue, when considering their original plans for this tour, but the next time Magdalena Bay tour the UK, they’ll surely be visiting larger venues still. People respond to them, and despite a setlist chock-full of both their biggest hits and some deeper cuts, there’s definitely unfinished business. Magdalena Bay are here, there’s no doubt about that, and they’re sticking around.

Setlist

She Looked Like Me!
Killing Time
True Blue Interlude
Image
Secrets (Your Fire)
You Lose!
Death & Romance
Fear, Sex
Vampire in the Corner
Watching T.V.
Tunnel Vision
Love Is Everywhere
Feeling DiskInserted?
Chaeri
That’s My Floor
Cry for Me
Killshot
Dreamcatching
Angel on a Satellite
The Ballad of Matt & Mica
The Beginning