At the start of the new academic year there is a lot happening here in Ghent. Ghent is one of Belgium’s major cities to get higher education so while the summer is relatively quiet, at the end of September the madness returns. I was off work because my injured shoulder and since partying doesn’t require more than one arm, out we went.

I didn’t bother to take my camera most of the time because even my small S90 is to big to just put it in your pocket and forget about it, it’s possible, but it’s just annoying and there usually isn’t really much to photograph anyway. A concert is nice to have some pictures of though, so when I went to see Magic Arm playing in the bar at Vooruit I did bring it along.

This guy is playing on a guitar that is basically ductaped together. When I asked him how it happened he simply replied "Haha, yes I accidentally dropped it a couple of times and it has a few cracks in it. It works fine with the ductape for now, but I guess I should start looking for a new one before it falls apart."

I noticed his gig while scanning Vooruit’s event calender and while I hadn’t heard of him, a quick listen to his work on Myspace made me write down the date. I can’t really describe his style, but he is basically a one man band and builds up every song with different loops of guitar, piano, drums, harmonica and a couple more weird instruments and he even samples his singing throughout his songs. It sounds pretty good recorded, but it’s even more impressive to watch him do it live. Have a listen on his Myspace and if you get the chance to see this guy play somewhere, I definitely recommend it.

UPDATE – I posted the photos to Facebook as well. See ‘em here.