July 11, 2007

[ The Verymoon ~> Ladies(inv) ~> Verymoon ~> Caterpllar(dys-end) + Bazaar chunk 'o funk ]

The Gingerbot Strikes Again.

A gander at the 1st set at the House of Blues inside a terrific summer. At 5 minutes in we get our first glance at the Andro shuffle, pedal thumps into a truly amazing drumbeat. Damn. By 7 minutes, everyone's cooking with Crisco and inside a cool little electronica dance rave groove accented by Magner's wonderful single dancy notes in between every bar. Cool jam, pretty original or like 1.0 a little more. As the Very Moon winds up we are treated to straight ahead '07 synth jamming but the mood is SO FINE, great aural tapestries by Magner for sure.

~> inv Ladies] The intro into this inverted 'Ladies' starts promptly at around 1:30 ish in with Mr. Mags' "squish". The down below sounds of a wet planet getting squished and the synth waves way above. A perfect spot for Allen to slay. He is a master here on the backend of Ladies in pure techno rave with his fine edrum and kick trigger blending perfectly in his matrix drum kit. There isn't a percusive sound Dr. Fameus cannot see or feel. 7 minutes into the end jam (1st part) hits the hilt nicely, a great peak. 'Can't afford a mistake....' Boom!! the porno funk begins. After the invitation for the ladies to get down tonight, Barberino get about minute solo lick to announce the all-resetting / start of Allen's trailing kick drum. Yes, this is whole show is a best of the 'Andromedan' indeed. Alongside Magner too , it's primetime 2007 indeedy. This show is at the top of many '07 lists for many reasons. Coming back to 'tVM'(2), we double the speed and head straight for bliss. If I may overreact for a second. Although pretty much cloning a good Verymoon ending, this one is just so heady & technically good from all members that it gets a big fat star licked and thumbed on the forehead. The post jam B chunky bass slap section at around 5 minutes is so fine.
Also, give it up to Brownie and these sexy slides up and down the fret straight into slapsville.

~> Cat ending] some more techno psyfunk as we enter the "pay your rent" ending. Could of used a WAY longer intro jam but a happy camper we are, nonetheless.

Gotta throw in this Bazaar. Slow and meticulous. Carbon copy? Sorta. "Once the troops begin to rally" we get some good stuff. It's not a "jam" song per se but a tight little hashterpiece. Again, Big red was king of the show. The difference from Sammy, on nights like these, is like "oh shit! they gone hired the best techno meets jazz-rock drummer in the World with an endless gas tank and never ending perfect rhythm and timing! Aaalllrighty then." this summer really convinced everyone that he was not so human.

The obligatory Brownstein giggle going to halftime pauses the festivities

Stay tuned and do not hesitate the 'Spaga.Spacebirdcyclonematingcall'....... it's fire.

Abduct me, probe me, show me Uranus, just get me back for the E-Factory shows.

The opening section features standout versions of both The Very Moon and Ladies. TVM’s first jam is turned into an uptempo dance jam that is significantly extended, and develops into a great Ladies peak. The jam out of Ladies has a similar feel, with some phenomenal guitar work from Barber. The biggest highlight here is the second jam out of TVM into the Caterpillar ending. This sort of deserves its own write-up.

The first few minutes of this are pretty typical “funk” jamming. There’s a bunch of start-and-stop stuff at one point, and generally speaking I don’t care about much of this section. At 5:45 the band starts a house groove that sounds reminiscent of Story jams, and for a bit there is the fear that this will be just more generic “groove” jamming. At 9:30, the band begins some dissonant play, buoyed by Allen’s incorporation of e-drums to provide texture for the jam. Magner’s pads wash atop the rest of the band and complete the dreamy, psychedelic sound. At 10:30, Barber brings in a fantastic guitar riff that becomes the focal point for much of the rest of this jam. What a wonderful, wonderful riff. Fun story about this jam. Some hero took this jam and synced it with the music video for the 70’s disco song “Apache,” and it became something of a piece of TDB lore for years. I had a friend who I brought to NYE in Chicago in 2012 who told me that he loved the band’s song “Apache.” He had no idea the music video was NOT the band, and told me a big part of the reason he came was because based on the video he thought the band was absolutely hilarious (in addition to the music being great). In any event, this jam is absolutely flawless. The entire band is locked in and recognizes that Barber has developed an absolutely awesome theme. Another fun aspect of this jam is this is the first time that Brownstein does the full G > Eb switch in the Caterpillar peak section, solidifying this as one of the band’s best endings for the next decade.

First Spaga jam is the usual DNB jam. Second jam gets a really neat extension, and they are willing to turn this into more of a type 2 jam here, with a solid return to the type 1 section. Nice. Both the jam out of and back into Spacebird have really nice moments littered throughout. There is admittedly some filler in these jams, but mostly I enjoyed these. The jam out of Caterpillar has some absolutely phenomenal work from Magner and Brownstein. This has an eerie vibe to it for a good portion that is really neat. There’s a short RLH jam after the first verse that literally only lasts 60 seconds or so. The second jam has a long, extended Rio tease from Magner. While neat, I wish sometimes he’d let this be more of a tease and less of a jam. This lasts way too long to the point this is basically a Rio jam. The Waves encore is solid, although this is just basic dark trance. Would have loved them to get a bit more out there, but a solid end to a great show anyway.

Highlights: TVM (1, 2**), Ladies*, Spaga (2), Spacebird, Cyclone, Caterpillar*