In an era when an artist can release an album upon the world without any advance warning, Blur’s “Magic Whip” was a most pleasant surprise. They’d been hinting that a reconciliation was in the works, but I had no idea they were recording, and when the album came out, it was a huge relief and confirmation of their status that it was not only passable, but actually quite wonderful, one of their best, most interesting pieces of work. An American tour seemed too much to ask, so we had to settle for two coastal shows. I don’t need to mention that I’d much rather have been at the Hollywood Bowl than at Madison Square Garden, but you take what you can get. I also somehow managed to get tickets that were the mathematically maximum distance away from the stage, so it wasn’t a particularly intimate show:

but it was a lot of fun, and they sounded great. The new songs were terrific, and they brought out the classics (“End of a Century,” “This is a Low”) as well as some surprising gems (“Badhead”). Here’s hoping the success of this album begets more, and maybe a tour where they don’t put all their eggs in two baskets.