Notes From The Drop Zone - 10/16/20

Image: Aerial view of the West Yarmouth Drive-in (source: gratefulweb.com)

Review:

Spraypaint opens the show, and right off the bat I was struck by how crisp the sound was and how much the Couch Tour TV website had improved since the last event. The jam stays in Spraypaint territory for the first few minutes, but finally breaks out in a blissful passage featuring Magner on the piano. The jam moves through several themes. The blissful theme sees Magner shift from piano to more orchestral synths before the jam turns melancholy. Magner samples from a variety of synth effects as Barber finally settles into a tight pocket. The jam turns absolutely evil here, and the whole band locks into a spectacular theme. About 9-10 minutes into the jam the theme breaks down into minimal driving trance. Shortly afterward, Barber signals the segue into Voices; the segue is simultaneously abrupt and smooth as butter. The first jam of the show is spectacular. The Voices jam, however, is basically non-existent. It has some brief type one shredding before this breaks down and settles into a Rocket Science intro. Rocket Science has a short Barber dominated outro which breaks down shortly into the kind of ambient jams the band used to segue into Tractorbeam jams. I personally enjoy these types of jams, and am glad to see the band using them in a regular set. It's short, but it works really well here. After the breakdown, Magner leads the band through a Confrontation intro. The Confrontation jam is absolutely spectacular. Right out of the gate, Barber is completely locked in, and Magner dominates the jam with a rave synth. The theme continues for a few minutes until Allen slows it down; the next section is a little bit slower but still very Magner-dominated, and in a similar vein to the proceeding theme. From here the jam goes from tight to incredible. The tempo slows down further, and Barber develops a distinct riff. The theme is terrifying, vaguely sludgy and evil. The band moves back to trance, but soon Barber returns to the riff. The trance theme continues to build, with Barber returning to the riff every so often, until it reaches a formidable Ladies peak. The jam out of Ladies starts off promising, with Magner on some absolutely evil synth effects, but it returns to Confrontation territory before it can do anything very interesting.

The first jam in Crickets is on the shorter side, but well-executed. Magner in particular is a wizard in this jam, which moves through an evil trance passage before building up to the triumphant Crickets peak. There are some nice Barber riffs going into the peak, but the buildup to the peak is pretty standard, as is the jam overall. The Crickets funk jam does not move me at all. There are a couple of standard funk themes, until the jam slows down into 4th of July. There is a sizable (five minutes or so) type one jam in 4th of July, with some gorgeous shredding from Barber. The jam out of 4th begins as a fairly standard swamp funk groove, but Barber latches onto some extremely catchy riffs. Barber eventually settles into a grunge chugging riff, with Magner coming in on the piano, at which point the jam breaks down into a passage of demented jazz. The jam settles into a Spacebird intro, with Barber leading the way as he did in the Voices intro. The jam out of Spacebird is frustrating, Magner seems to be doing all he can to innovate, but the rest of the band, especially Brownie and Allen, keep returning to the Spacebird hits. Despite the rigid structure there is some cool atmosphere here. When Allen kicks up the tempo abruptly the jam is almost immediately in Waves territory. The jam out of Waves begins in a sinister and vaguely dubby space. It soon settles down into a more mellow tempo and blissed out mood as it becomes more distinctly dub. The jam explores this space before the tempo picks up, and the band builds up a great major key theme. It almost sounds as if the band is building up another Confrontation ending before the jam ultimately delivers one of the finer Spacebird endings in recent memory. The band leaves the stage and returns for an encore of Shelby Rose. It is a solid standalone version competently played.

A solid first night back in months, with a couple standout moments in each set. I’m very excited to see what the band delivers in the coming days and weeks.

Highlights:

Confrontation > Ladies

Pure thematic excellence. The band is immediately locked in, and deliver a trance jam that is interesting throughout, and also manage to find an interesting type two theme before building up to massive Ladies peak.

Spraypaint > Voices

This jam was not as consistent as Confrontation > Ladies, but the last big theme before the segue, and the segue itself, are both excellent. One of the more unique segues into Voices that I’ve ever heard.

4th of July > Spacebird

I saw multiple people calling this the jam of the night. It didn’t hold my attention the whole time, but I am excited to relisten. I thought that, like with Spraypaint > Voices, the culmination of the jam and the segue were worth the journey. This is probably the strongest 4th of July yet.

Waves > Spacebird

Great atmosphere in the first half, and the band managed to surprise me when they finally tipped their hand going into Spacebird.

Stray Observations:

This is the first two-set show without a Tractorbeam segment since 7/20/19.

The setlist from this show appears to have been taken from the planned, and cancelled, 3/12/20 show in Philadelphia.