October 10, 2007

TVM > Helix > TVM > Helix is wonderful. I could say more about it, but holy hell it's all just awesome.

Jigsaw is alright, liked the second half more. 7-11 > Bazaar is a total blast. The > 42 is only mildly a >, but I don't know what else they'd do with where they ended up out of Bazaar. 42 jam is cool enough. Magner heading this off, but nothing otherworldly, imo. But good biscuits to be sure. > Buddha is righteous though. The jam here is fantastic into this inverted Buddha. Barber isn't doing too much and him and Magner all dialed. Perfect build here to the Buddha ending, but maybe a slight stumble into the lyrics. Forget it though, this is awesome. Second Buddha jam with the weird drum beatbox almost thirst quencher thing is real sweet. Love it. The shift to Barber's funk-like strumming opens up a nice dancey groove which eventually lends itself to the 42 ending. They get this sort of start-stop-ish type thing going. Cool enough. Magner starts his organ sounds which Marc and Barber follow well enough to nicely cap off the segment. A lot actually happens in this 42 ending. Onamae Wa is fine to end the show. B&C a fun enough encore.

Really damn sweet show.

The Very > Heli > Moon > Copters(9.85/10) { the gnarliest hour } The jams inside this magical quattro has benzodiazepine, norepinephrine & sass properties in spades. Absolute Fall '07 Blissco.

set 1:: 9.15 / 10

By the time I play the start of this show in my driveway, to the time this ecstasy set is finished, I am exactly entering the line for the Can / US border :)

2nd set is a little more mellow and intricate but has some grade a prime beefcake.

The Jigsaw is pretty vanilla yet I really like the psychedelic bass led segment at around 8 mins in. Not sure if Marc switches to his Tonka Toy Keyboard but it sounds like it. Although they try, it doesn't really go anywhere until the 2nd jam which leans on some reggae dub with a flute patch (which I wish Magner would patch in more) but tbh, it's an average version.

7-11 ~> Bazaar Escape ~> 42 ~> Digital Buddha ~> 42 I just love the opening lyrics to 7-11 (a.k.a. Apu's home of the squishee) ''Cover it up, I know you got eyes, you know you got time. You want free from the octopus wrapped around your mind'' anyhoo, nice grand piano by Mr.Mags as we head towards "cauliflower dreams...." part....short but sweet. at 7:30 into this 7-11 is where the rubber meets the noodle. Untz time, Allen laying down the simple but perfect percussion to open the gate to anyone's musical suggestions. The build up is nice, 2007 has one of the greatest 7-11's, like Oct. 26 of course. I wanted a bigger peak heading into 'Bazaar' but the synth vibe is pretty cool nonetheless... IMO, October of 2007 has perhaps the 2 "best" Bazaars of the year: Oct.15in Memphis and again, Oct. 26. Check those puppies out, again. This version takes no time at all to get into a rather nice up up and away jam until the eerie piano section where things get creepy and a tad trippy, after all, Corrinado is running for his life. It's a shorty. 'fortytwo' 'cynicism in the wick, power down and candle lit' pretty much all 42's are the same until the fantastic point where you are reaching the top of the roller coaster about to speed down; this is the great feeling I get when they enter the jam after the author asks a question to himself on what he should do. It's a nice 4 minute groove here until they meet up with the inverted 'Buddha'. Mostly synth jams and a steady hi-hat lay down this last 42 jam. ''Buddha Digital" Here's hoping you have a good pair of speakers and/or headphones because Brownie lays down a real nice and subtle foundation in this ending jam as Barber comes walking in with delicious solos and colorful rhythms...very nice summit jam at around 5 minutes in. Perfect minimalism...into the oh so familiar awesome ending....shred that dancefloor! Poof! start the song... The final jam before returning to the segment ending 42 starts with superb keyboarding including some Barber mumbles and some good bass but make no mistake...this is MAGNER COUNTRY ! One of the better "Magner-full" 42's in a bit. you can't help but have a big smile in the closing Barber solo in the 42 ending. very good.

If he's so damn hairy, how will a bath help? yes, the encore is B & C which is a great encore choice imo...anywhere, anytime. It's a fun way to leave the theatre.

set 2:: 8.10 / 10

{Fortune Cookie Advice For Freaks #14b}

“Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming who you need to be to be accepted. Belonging, on the other hand, doesn't require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are.”

Highwire is standard, jamless. The Very Moon first jam is significantly extended, and develops into this spacey downtempo jam. They have a tendency to sometimes feel like they need to turn these jams into dub things, or whatever. This case, they just let the music flow, and they develop an absolutely marvelous theme. This is ethereal, dreamy, and psychedelic. This develops so fluidly and naturally into an uptempo dance jam that you almost don’t notice it as it’s happening. Helix has a nice, dark jam in it. This is nothing too far outside of the box, but is well played, and has a great pocket. The second TVM jam begins with the usual funk stuff. I don’t really care about this jam much at all. Allen comes in with this somewhat out of place e-drum loop (or something) around the 2:30 mark in the Helicopters second track. This feels really weird, and he fortunately drops it after 45 seconds or so. However, he brings this back in a couple times as well. Weird stuff. The remainder of the jam has some solid stuff from Magner initially, then later on from Barber. The build as they get closer to Helicopters ending is very solid, and worth a highlight here.

Jigsaw first jam is just a couple of minutes and has Magner sounding a little out of sync with the rest of the band. Not much to hear, here. Most of second jam does nothing for me as well. Fast, and well-played, but not a whole lot for me to sink my teeth into here. The third jam is a long dub jam with lots of Magner pan flute littered throughout. Barber seems to be doing what he can, but not given a lot to work with. 7-11 first jam gets a little more outside of the box than usual, but returns to the box pretty promptly. The jam out of 7-11 has some great themes, particularly from Magner, and especially as they get nearer to the transition to Bazaar Escape. The jam out of Bazaar Escape turns into an ambient/space jam for a minute or two. Neat stuff. Jam out of 42 into inverted Buddha doesn’t do much for me. The jam out of Buddha begins with some rhythmic strumming/picking from Barber, and Magner has a square wave lead. They have so much success with this particular pairing of sounds, you’d think they’d use it more often. Allen’s using some e-drum patch that sounds like a beatboxed snare. Weird. In any event I really like this theme a lot. Around a minute into the 42 track, Brownstein hits on a four-chord progression. This isn’t quite 42, but it has some familiarity to it and I can’t quite place it. The B&C encore actually has some decent stuff, and if you're okay with their "jammier" sound, you may really enjoy this. I thought this was solid without stretching into being too generic, even if it was pretty short.

Highlights: TVM (1**, 2), Helix (1), 7-11 (2*), Bazaar Escape, Buddha**, B&C