November 04, 2007

what a tour. The Town Ballroom is a great spot. Terrific sound and sights. Sven transition~>AC2B~>Abyss~>AC2B; I love the drop into Abyss. Great Basis, on the verge of epic except for perhaps spots where they were just a little too crispy and tired thus some uneventful exploration arises. But that's OK :) It ain't the Stubbs Fall 2009 Basis but where Barber sometimes might peter out, Mags fills in unique flavor plus there is Allen. You see, when they created the robot A.K.A. Allen Aucoin, they created perfect timing and endless stamina. He does need a Bullroarer though.

{ NO TURN LEFT UNSTONED}

Sgt. Pepper’s to open the show. Ugh. Anyway. Home Again is solid here, but just isn’t long enough to warrant re-listening. A second cover to open the show, Safety Dance, at least concludes with a jam (and technically begins with a very short jam). This jam immediately shifts uptempo and sounds like it’s headed to the ending to Floes for a bit. I didn’t dislike this by any means, but it never really grabbed me and it’s not something I care to relisten to. That said, the jam out of Sven is great. This begins with a dark and dirty DNB jam, which I would typically dislike. However, this one is well done and has very interesting stuff from Magner. With about 5-6 minutes left in the jam, they switch to a slower tempo as they prep for the transition to AC2B. This entire section has some great interplay between Barber and Magner. The AC2B/Abyss segment is heralded as one of the peaks of 2007 by many, and while I’d agree with that as a general statement, I think people overlook that the jam out of AC2B is really not all that interesting. The first few minutes are a little too jambandy, and then around 8:15 they switch uptempo into a dance jam. This gets much more interesting, but this is really just a couple minutes before they hit Abyss. The real meat of this segment comes in the jam out of Abyss. From the first moment of this jam, it’s obvious the band is on a mission. Barber has some truly unique playing here, opting to go with these long, drawn out notes, rather than his usual rhythmic riffing. The riff he begins at 11:06 really sets the tone for this jam. This space that Barber creates leaves Magner and Brownstein with plenty of room to create, and create they do. Magner’s riffs here remind me a bit of LCD Soundsystem’s “Yeah,” maybe just in terms of the initial arp pattern that Magner plays. As they flesh this out, it gets more and more interesting, with Barber slowly going from drawn out notes to creative little riffs that echo off the walls. As the band heads toward AC2B ending, Barber whips out the rock god act and shows that despite his space here, he’s still the true lead voice in this band. This entire jam is absolutely phenomenal, and one of the best of the year in a year which is absolutely littered with amazing jams. The AC2B ending jam is very solid as well. This is an airy jam that coalesces into a great ending from the entire band. This ending jam is very piano heavy, so if that’s for you, this is for you. This is nowhere near the Abyss that preceded it (I mean, how could it be?), but still incredibly good.

The jam out of Triumph has a solid groove to it, and a nice little A/B section thing going on from Barber. This is cool, even if it’s not that incredible in a vacuum. The jam out of Morph into Helix begins with a lot of meandering. In fact, come to think of it there is a lot of meandering throughout this jam. I wanted to like this so much more than I did. However, the reality is that this jam feature is the absolute worst of Barber on MIDI keyboard. He adds nothing meaningful to this jam on the keyboard, and probably detracts from a lot of what Magner and Brownstein are doing. When Barber finally switches back to guitar, he has some fantastic play before the band drops into Helicopters, although he then butchers the return to Helicopters itself. Again, I really wanted to like this because it was a deliberate attempt by the band to get overtly digital. However, this just came up short. Therapy is standard. The jam out of the beginning of Morph is forgettable as well. The band communicates really well here, however, the music they’re playing just isn’t interesting. Barber struggles to tease Rio by Duran Duran, and eventually remembers what the notes are and teases it several times. They finally drop into the beginning of Shem-Rah, saving us from this mediocre jam. The jam out of Shem-Rah Boo into the beginning of Basis is another missed opportunity. This is way too short to be interesting and ultimately feels like they switch to the downtempo Basis intro far too jarringly. The main Basis jam has several distinctive parts. The first 8 minutes or so feature Barber on guitar, and most of this feels like filler. There is then a 10+ minute section with Barber on MIDI keyboard. There were parts of this I liked, but honestly most of it Barber is just trying to do way too much with a limited skillset on the keyboard. Around the 26-minute mark, they hit on a really interesting theme, and Barber almost immediately returns to guitar as they do. Almost like he wanted to get in on the action of something interesting finally happening. From here on out, the rest of the jam is absolutely marvelous. I see people refer to this jam as one of the best versions of Basis of all-time. I wholeheartedly disagree. That’s not to say this is a bad jam, and in fact I think it’s very good. However, this ending section from 26:00 on is really the portion that’s worth re-listening to, and when you’re talking about 5-6 minute section of a 25-minute improv, that’s just not significant enough for me. The encore features no jamming, but overall this show was a very solid effort with a lot of missed opportunities to cap one of the best tours this band has ever embarked upon.

Highlights: Sven**, Abyss**, AC2B (2**), Triumph, Basis*