April 22, 2006

Right out of the gate, the band starts Waves to make a dyslexic completion from the night before. Barber has some phenomenal playing here. This is simple, effective, minimalist guitar playing from Barber. He’s clearly locked in, and the rest of the band is smart enough to let him just vibe where he’s at. I love it. Most of the Crickets jam here is mediocre, forgettable midtempo jamming. I-Man has a short first jam that doesn’t do much. However, the second jam, beginning at 5:45, gets dark, trancy, and digital. This is really cool, and they develop an almost hypnotic rhythm here. This is still mostly a type 1 jam for a good chunk of it, but I still like what’s going on here. Third I-Man jam sounds like it’s going to head back to I-Man ending after just a few minutes, but they decide not to do so and venture instead toward an extended jam. This is not bad, but nothing great either. Spy and Abraxas are both jamless/standard.

The second set begins with a 21-minute version of Caterpillar. Almost all of this jam did nothing for me. Felt like a lot of treading water with no real intention. Have A Cigar is jamless, obviously. 7-11 has an extended “towel” jam, though this is mostly just vamping. The jam out of 7-11 into Pilin ending is fast trance, but without any real thematic work. The 42 jam here is forgettable major key jamming. Allen uses his e-drums here, which is always nice, but I don’t think the melodic playing is anything worth relistening to. Humu encore is a nice touch, but ultimately never gets interesting. Safety Dance is jamless.

Highlights: Waves*, I-Man (2)