Notes From The Drop Zone - 4/23/21

Review:

Last night constituted my first drive-in show experience, and I have to say that I love the format. I appreciated that they actually bothered to enforce pandemic safety guidelines, and if you planned it well, you could be near your friends with a great view and great sound. THAT SAID, we were in the gold section, and I am certain I would not have enjoyed the show nearly as much if we were anywhere else. The only speakers in the venue are on the stage, and the sound difference even a few rows back or forward was almost shocking. Back by the restrooms (not even all the way in the back of the venue) the sound was almost hopelessly muddy.

The set opening Boop > Crickets (><) > Boop certainly hearkened back to the more famous Phillmore iteration, and even though it was, charitably, a pale shadow of its more famous cousin, it still yielded the most interesting jam of the night. Boop > Crickets was fine. From memory, Magner stepped back very early and the jam was mostly Barber-led—although this happened so frequently this show that I’m not sure whether it was a Barber-heavy show, or the keyboards weren’t as audible from where I was parked. The Crickets peak itself was fantastic (in general, Barber had a fantastic night last night—more on that later). Crickets had the standard funk progression that didn’t do much for me, but the jam out of Crickets was easy jam of the night. The trance theme yielded to a blissco theme, and the band settled into that patient space, allowing the theme to evolve and build to an uncomposed peak in the vein of Crickets. After this, the jam settled into a build back into the middle of Boop. This segment was followed by an oddly-timed Magellan (I have to imagine this was intended to close the set, but I haven’t seen the paper setlist) that, frankly, sucked the air out of the “room,” so to speak. Barber was playing very well, and I expected this version to go somewhat deep, but the main jam was only a few minutes. Spaga seemed like an odd choice to follow, and I was worried it would be rushed. I didn’t keep track of it, but it seemed like a very solid standalone.

The second set opened with Mindless Dribble, which was mostly standard through three successive Dribble Hits sections. After the third, the jam segues smoothly into Aceetobee. Aceetobee > Catalyst (><) > Aceetobee is an absolute Barber shred-fest. Whether or not the Catalyst was inverted (I would argue that it was—they don’t always sing the chorus in the end, do they?) the important part is that this was NOT an AC>Cat>2B the way they usually play it. So if you were concerned by the appearance on paper, this was not just a retread. The jams didn’t go very deep at all, but the playing was immaculate and the setlisting was fairly creative. The Aceetobee ending drop segued back into the Dribble hits, which was very well-executed. The Dribble outro was the first jam in the set (except maybe Dribble > Aceetobee) that felt like a proper Biscuits jam. It was some more gorgeous blissco that yielded pretty quickly to Voices, but despite my feeling that it was too short, I would still likely call it the jam of the second set. Voices was standard, and followed by another short and punch Overture, a strong exclamation point to the second set. On Time is a great encore song, frankly, and it’s rare enough to still be enjoyable when I get to catch it.

The playing was fantastic. Barber in particular had a great night. The energy was all there. But at the end of the day, only a couple of jams really moved me. I’m expecting better things tonight.

Highlights:

Crickets > Boop

Immaculately patient theme building blissco, with a huge uncomposed peak and a strong transition. This is why I travel to see this band.

Dribble > Voices

Another blissco jam. At the time I was disappointed with the length but I would like to go back and revisit.

Dribble > Aceetobee

Very cool transition. Almost a DJ segue. The Dribble jam itself was fairly ordinary, but the segue was very cool.

Spaga

I thought that this was the stronger dnb of the night, over The Overture. The main jam was patient and atmospheric.

Stray Observations:

I referred to it in passing above, but I really believe that this is one of the best Barber performances I’ve seen.

This is the second ever inverted Catalyst.

This was the sixth Aceetobee > Catalyst > Aceetobee pairing (though obviously the first with an inverted Catalyst), the first since 12/4/15.

This was the first On Time since 1/26/19, a gap of 55 shows.

Dear Messrs. Marc Brownstein, Jon the Barber, Aron Magner, and Allen Aucoin. Please bring back Ableton jamming, Barber synth guitar, all that jazz. OK thanks B4L.

—Mr. Zan