November 09, 2006

Helix has a solid trance jam to start the show. There’s basically a Buddha ending jam for the first several minutes of this, which is fine by me. The first several minutes of Spraypaint are largely forgettable. However, around the 11:30 mark, the band coalesces around a really pretty Blissco theme, and at 11:50, Barber begins this soaring guitar line that turns into a beautiful melody that just ties everything together so wonderfully. This is Blissco, and even if it’s just for a few minutes before Cyclone, this is glorious and I’m all for it. This would be an incredible jam if they just gave it more time. I’m torn on this Cyclone jam. The first few minutes sound like they’re doing a Disco Inferno jam, between Barber and Brownstein. Then they shift noticeably at 8:20 into a major key. The remainder of this into Voices (about 2 minutes or so) is again, beautiful Blissco. Frustrating that they wouldn’t draw this out more, as again this had so much potential. The Voices jam is vvery repetitive until the band goes back into Cyclone. There’s been some debate about whether this Cyclone is “split” or just repeated. Unless the band has left it unfinished forever, in my mind this is just a repeat of the exact same song, twice. The segue back into Cyclone is way, way, way too drawn out for my tastes. They are clearly doing a Cyclone intro for like 10 full minutes. Come on. This second Cyclone jam doesn’t do much for me, and they wind up in a “repeater” jam for a good chunk of it. Meh.

On paper, there is not much that looks more boring to me than Pilin > Amen > Higher, and this played out partially how I thought it would. This was at least mercifully short on the way into Amen. Additionally, the jam out gets dark and demonic, and I actually really enjoyed most of the return to Pilin a lot. They wind up absolutely crushing this DNB jam with some very interesting thematic work from Magner and Barber. Sounds almost like FT2K. Great stuff. The band themselves seem to be acutely aware of what’s just taken place, as Barber remarks afterward, “That was pretty much what we came here to do.” Indeed, Barber. Indeed. The Rock Candy jam that follows is fairly long (15ish minutes) with parts that range from very interesting to flat out boring. I’ll note this as a highlight, but only parts of this really grabbed me. First Spaga jam is another DNB jam, and this one gets pretty out there. I liked it, and this is from somebody who typically has a distaste for their DNB jams. Second Spaga jam is a short type 1 jam, and the Doncore is just okay. Still, bizarrely good show considering the amount of DNB in here.

Highlights: Helix, Spraypaint*, Cyclone (1*), Amen**, Spaga (1)