June 08, 2007

Helicopters begins with a sample from Candy Mountain, and this is a neat little thing to begin the show. I love when they do this, really hypes up the beginning of the performance. The jam in Helicopters is mostly forgettable. This is not bad by any means, but never really grabs me. The jam back in is fine. Therapy drops into Pygmy (no jam). The jam out of Pygmy back into Therapy shows that they can jam into Therapy ending just fine, but the jam itself does very little for me. Have a Cigar is jamless.

Ten Ton Foot is jamless. The jam out of Caterpillar has this awesome, dark, middle-eastern, ominous jam. This scratches a major itch for me, and they segue flawlessly into Buddha ending and nail the inversion. Great stuff. Most of the jam out of Buddha back into Caterpillar is pretty nice, with lots of e-drums (including thirst quenchers) to go around. The Caterpillar ending still weirdly has Marc only switching to Eb for part of the peak section, while the other parts he just plays the verse riff. So weird.

Jesus. Shimmy. Wow. The first few minutes, Magner plays around with a heavily delayed xylophone patch which give sort of a Shpongly feel to the first few minutes. Brownstein’s dissonant repeated bass pattern only serves to reinforce this feeling, as Barber plays spacey, droning single-guitar notes rounding out this strange, otherworldly jam that sounds like it belongs in a science fiction soundtrack. Continuing to explore alien worlds, Magner brings in a patch that sounds like a cross between a harmonica and accordion, and Allen is almost an afterthought here. The constant pounding kick drum, like a tribal heartbeat pulsating along, punctuates each note until suddenly Allen brings in some e-drums to provide another textural layer. The band fully drops out and begins what I initially assumed was the return to Shimmy ending. Imagine my surprise when I looked down and saw that there were a full FIFTEEN MINUTES left in the track. I’m happy to say that this alien-science-fiction-soundtrack section of the jam is probably the safer, less exploratory portion. Magner brings in ominous chord swells which serve as the band’s new backdrop for this episode of jamming without a net. Barber comes back in with a distorted guitar tone around the 16:00 mark, and locks on to a repetitive, monotonous riff. This is the kind of the riff that has the power to absolutely torpedo a jam if not used properly. Fortunately, Marc locks in on the same riff, and heavily distorts his bass tone. Allen, right on cue, brings the kick back in and the band is off on a new section of bizarrely danceable, entirely dissonant, noise. Magner switches to a heavily distorted acid tone and joins in on the repetitive, ominous riff. Around 17:45, Magner comes up with this great rhythmic riff that has this off-kilter feel and a heavy accent on the last note in the pattern that just pulls your ear into the next measure. There were times where I had the “Is this forever???” feeling while listening to this, and in this case this was in the best possible way. Around 19:00, Barber can be heard with what can only be described as chanting, and it’s clear that he is fully invested in the pure psychosis that the band is knee deep in. Magner has this lead around the 20:00 mark that sort of swerves in and out of tempo, and all of the sudden the band grabs the reins tightly and pulls back as some of the layers peel off like a poisonous onion. Magner brings in an audio sample which repeats, almost as though channeling the thoughts of the audience: “Where did we come from?” Where, indeed. At 23:00 Magner decides he’s not quite finished stamping this jam, and brings in the Angel Choir patch to add yet another dimension to this jam. It’s bizarre how corrupted and evil the Angel Choir patch can sound under the right circumstances. Here, this sounds downright devilish, and you almost get the feeling that the band is walking you straight up to the doors of the gates of hell (no pun intended). Literally the only thing that I can say about this jam to impugn it in any way is that it felt like they could have built up the portion immediately prior to the Shimmy peak riff. Barber solos a little bit over the top of Brownstein’s now somewhat normal bass riff and Magner’s Angel Choir, before just sort of sliding into Shimmy ending. This is a small criticism, all things considered, and to be totally clear this particular jam is in contention for not just best 2.0 Shimmy, but best Shimmy, period.

Hope has a “Gentle Nature” jam which is pretty jambandy and forgettable, and Morph has about what you would expect from a Morph encore, though there is a brief Shem-Rah tease from Marc that was neat.

Highlights: Helix (Intro), Caterpillar*, Buddha*, Shimmy**