June 23, 2006

I am not typically a fan Overture openers as it feels like an excuse for the band to play forgettable DNB. This one is different. Allen is on fire as usual, but Magner has an awesome array of crazy sounds, and Barber is much more focused than usual. This a very, very good version. I think for me this stops a step short of “great,” but considering my usual distaste for these jams, this is notable in and of itself. Spy is standard. First I-Man jam is fantastic. This is a little bit of Blissco, and very pretty jamming, particularly from Barber. Love it. The second jam is really neat as well. This develops into a sort of Blissco-adjacent sound, and Magner has some really lovely leads here. Third jam, not so much. This gets into a bit of the “repeater” feel, where the band is just fixated on a particular riff/rhythm. This doesn’t do it for me.

This Spectacle intro just doesn’t do it for me. Barber’s tone is great, but beyond that this theme just never grabbed me. The Shem-Rah jam is filler for most of it, but at 13:58 Magner comes up with a fantastic lead, and the rest of the band follows suit. This develops into a great section of improv. Ladies is okay, however, this gets very good just before the transition to Cyclone. This 2-3 minute section alone is worth re-listening to. The jam out of Cyclone has a great groove and some excellent arpeggios from Barber that really set a great tone. The jam out of Waves back into Ladies never feels like the band really hits the next level. They’re in lock step with one another, but just isn’t all that interesting to me. Mulberry’s encore has a very short type 1 jam.

Highlights: Overture*, I-Man (1*, 2*), Shem-Rah, Ladies*, Cyclone