May 26, 2006

Bullets is standard. Dribble begins with a drawn out drum intro from Allen with lots of wailing guitar from Barber. I guess if you’re into that. This first Dribble jam has a lot of noodly Barber. Would be nice if he focused up as the others all seem to be listening and complementing one another nicely. Second jam is derailed by Barber. His guitar effect basically has him playing in the bass registers, and he overshadows everybody in this jam. Yuck. They have this really cool effect that somebody is playing (Allen? Magner?) but it’s just out of sync with the rest of the band a bit. This was the days before Ableton, so this is not that weird, but it’s really offputting here, especially given how cool this could have turned out. Cyclone > Confro > Safety looks great on paper, but in execution not much here felt like anything but filler.

First Magellan jam is short and predictable. The second has some great thematic work by the entire band. This far in 2006, this is easily the best Magellan jam I’ve heard from the band. This is spacey, Floydian at times, and features really cool melodies from Barber and Magner. The Humu jam has a neat little vibe to it, but unfortunately this is very short-lived and transitions to Crickets far too quickly for my liking. Both Crickets jams here do nothing for me.

Highlights: Magellan (2**)