The start of the fabled FT07. This is a tour that is remembered by most fans as a seminal moment in the history of 2.0. At the time, there were massive expectations for the band, with just shy of 2 years under their belt as a new unit. Allen was clearly gaining comfort, and the band had developed a darker, more electronic sound. Hope here contains a DNB jam, and it does NOT contain the “Gentle Nature” jam that the band had been adding to Hope. In fact, I think from this point on, there were no “Gentle Nature” jams at all, which is a shame. Even though that section didn’t typically produce interesting jams, the more places they can jam in and out, the better. In any event, this version of Hope is basically split into two sections. The first, forgettable DNB which is followed by a Robots fakeout, and the second, a fast-paced trance jam. This second half is balls-to-the-wall, and features some great stuff from Magner. Very dark, textural stuff. This has sort of a “the bus will explode if we don’t slow down” feel to it. Great stuff. The Boop jam comes out of the funk section, and slowly turns into a non-funk jam. Nice. I don’t find myself rapt with attention, but I do think the segue they do here is very solid. The SITA jam steps outside of the usual type 1 structure for an extended jam. This is really nice, and keeps the overall feel (if a little darker) of the SITA jam while still standing on its own. This second Astronaut jam is multi-faceted, and fantastic overall. This begins as a dub jam, then flows into an uptempo dance jam with a great foundational riff from Barber and some pan flute action from Magner. From there, it’s more of a straightforward (but excellent) dance jam, into a solid ending. Great stuff overall in this first set.

IRW is jamless. Many of the Dribbles from 2007 are pretty straightforward and forgettable, particularly the first jams. This one is not that. They get outside of the usual type of jam, and Magner has some nice, odyssey-like leads. Love this patch he uses, and Barber is comfortable here lying in the background and just doing some textural stuff. Nice stuff overall. This turns into a breakbeat jam for a bit before shifting uptempo into a dance jam. Honestly, I felt like they let this dance section go on for too long. This is basically the same theme for 6+ minutes with virtually no evolution. Don’t get me wrong, it’s catchy, so I’ll take it, but this could have been better. The jam out of Cyclone begins as fairly mediocre minor key dance jamming, then changes to mediocre major key dance jamming as they get to inverted Confrontation. Eh. The jam out of Confrontation starts with a lot of potential. Around the 15-minute mark, Allen drops the beat for a build/return. This little build is great, although the return feels like just a continuation of what they were playing during the build. I know it’s hard to improv a different piece of music immediately after, but would have been nice for at least Magner to switch things up. In any event, the pocket here is deep as can be, and this is a very nice jam overall. The Plan B jam does nothing for me. The House Dog first jam has a ton of potential. It begins with Barber using a heavily delayed tone, and this is evocative of a lot of 1.0 jams that just wound up in a massive ball of swirling psychedelia. However, this eventually deviates from that and the resulting jam feels like the band doing an impression of Tunnel. Weird. Not great, either, or at least not interesting. Second House Dog jam is mostly good, and has some great stuff from Magner littered throughout. This is about par for the course around this time, as they usually had no problem making the dark and ominous stuff sound interesting. Frog Legs encore is obviously standard and jamless.

Highlights: Hope**, Astronaut (1, 2**), Dribble (1), Confrontation*, HDPF (2)

October 09, 2007

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Treemaculate

All-Timers