June 28, 2007

Astronaut to start the show is fine. This never gets to the next level for me, but generally was solid. The jam out of Cyclone is absolutely fantastic. This is dark and eerie, and at times it sounds like it’s definitively headed for the ending of Rock Candy. This whole dark section is fantastic, but then even prior to the Safety Dance transition, they come up with this short section with a multi-chord progression which is ridiculous as well. Fantastic jam all-around. The jam out of Have a Cigar into Basis intro goes nowhere. The second jam in Basis is incredible, however. This is thematic and interesting, and features a lot of great melodic playing from Magner. Between this and Cyclone alone, there is some great work from Magner in this show. First Magellan jam is the usual tom-heavy jam, not much else going on here. Second jam has some nice delayed xylophone patch work from Magner. I enjoyed parts of this, but there was just a little too much filler here for my tastes. There’s a short-ish spacey jam that leads into a Stir It Up tease from Marc before the ending of Magellan. Even though this is short, I’ll always support them extending these spacey little ambient sections. Home Again has a very short jam which leads into the ending of Astronaut. This is just too short to be interesting.

Highlights: Cyclone**, Basis (2**), Magellan (3)