February 04, 2006

KOTW is standard. Lai gets extended, but this is a little too jambandy for me and less thematic. Ladies immediately locks into an uptempo dance groove. This isn’t bad by any means, but they just never really step outside of the box in any way that is all that meaningful. They finally get into some interesting stuff near the end of the jam, but by then it’s clear they’re trying to figure out how to segue into Cyclone for the first time. The Cyclone jam is really great. Tempest is weirdly…jamless. Odd. Spectacle intro jam is not really a jam at all, just a minute or so of space before the song starts. Eh.

The Bullets jam is near-non-existent. This literally lasts like 2 minutes. Shem-Rah is mostly a Magner-led jam. It’s clear that this is a band relearning its identity. I don’t think this is awful (especially for the band’s first full jam as a new band). However, Allen is way too quick to drop the full snare drum here, and this was something that I recall plaguing him early on. Magner is very nice here, but I think Brownstein’s monotony holds back the band (including Allen). Nughuffer has a nice jam in it. This begins with a dark, ominous trance jam, and develops nicely as the band runs through a couple different themes. This is again, very Magner-heavy, and the rhythmic play between Brownstein and Allen gives the feel of a 1.0 jam. The Abyss jam is not bad, but they clearly didn’t properly prepare for how they would get out of Abyss and into the jam. They hang out with the gated patch present for much of this jam before headed to Nughuffer ending. Crystal Ball is standard. The Ape jam is a pretty generic drum and bass jam to my ears. I don’t think they’re doing anything here that you haven’t heard a billion times before. Allen clearly uses this jam to showcase his DNB chops to the new fanbase, but beyond that, not worth revisiting. The Doncore jam is nothing to write home about.

Highlights: Nughuffer, Cyclone*