June 27, 2007

Most of this Caterpillar jam is pretty paint by numbers play. However, at 8:51, the entire band drops the beat and regroups. The resulting jam is a phenomenal, multi-chord progression. The entirety of the rest of this, through the ending section, is fantastic, and Magner in particular is absolutely ridiculous. It’s weird to me that Brownstein is STILL not doing the G > Eb switch in the Caterpillar ending riff. When does he stop trying to make that verse riff work during the peak? There’s a very short “towel” jam in 7-11. The jam out and into Waves is solid. The last 2 minutes of the Waves track is an ambient/space jam that leads into the Spaga intro. This is ethereal and cool. Barber’s play here has a very Floydian quality to it that I like a lot. First Spaga jam has some neat stuff from Magner, but nothing here that made me really want to relisten. The beginning of the Story jam has some potential, but it winds up in the same typical “jamfunk” that this song so often does. Meh. Spacebird features Barber on MIDI keyboard. I’m not positive when he started using this, and while he’s clearly not a talented keyboardist, him being a talented musical mind goes a long ways. Parts of this are solid, and the MIDI keyboard is a nice addition. Other parts feel like he hasn’t quite gotten the hang of it yet, but I think given the circumstances this is worth listening to. The Rock Candy jam has a great dark groove to it, but ultimately this just doesn’t last long enough to spread its legs.

Highlights: Caterpillar**, 7-11, Waves*, Spacebird