The Blues Magoos - The Bowery Electric, NYC, 5.23.15


by Bruce Alexander
Posted: May 2015
(2637) Page Views


The Blues Magoos - photo by Bruce Alexander

The Blues Magoos - photo by Bruce Alexander

The Blues Magoos is a band from the psychedelic past, and they’ve reemerged to put on great live shows as they always have. I just saw them in a small club in the East Village just like the old days. Having the two original main guys - guitarist/vocalist Peppy Castro and keyboardist Ralph Scala/lead vocalist made for a great night of mind blowing music.

They started heir set with “Rush Hour,” a song from their classic record Electric Comic Book. They followed with more songs from that album. One was a B-Side called “Pipe Dream,” which was quite amazing.The band did a killer version of “Gloria,”  which had the whole crowd stomping. Peppy then introduced a new song, saying that he and Ralph it wrote while having food in Chinatown. It’s called “Crapo De Stinko,” and was quite amusing. They then performed another great tune from their ‘Psychedelic Lollipop” album called “Gotta Get Away,” which lead right into a rip roaring take on The Seeds’ “Pushing Too Hard.”

The Magoos ended their set with their most famous song “We Ain’t Got Nothing Yet.” The crowd went crazy as the band then broke into their version of “Tobacco Road.”

The show was a gas. Adding to the fun was having special guests in the audience, such as Little Steven and Joseph Marra, owner of the Night Owl bar, a club that in the ‘60’s The Blues Magoos got their start. It’s now nearly fifty years that they’ve been keeping the psychedelic movement alive. OUT OF SIGHT!