December 31, 2007

Home Again is a great opener for a NYE show. This is simple, straightforward jamming that can let the band get comfortable and without any huge expectations. I like the choice a lot, and the jam is generally very solid. There is not really a jam afterward into November Rain, just a drop into November Rain. I-Man’s jam begins with a trance beat from Allen and a minimalist riff from Barber. I enjoyed this mostly, but it was pretty much paint-by-numbers stuff. Morph has a fairly forgettable jam, and I couldn’t care less about the addition of the horns. Wanna Be Startin’ Something is not awful, but I will say that the juxtaposition of Keller Williams’ silky voice vs. the Biscuits and their gravel is a stark one. The jam out of Triumph is mostly forgettable for the first several minutes, save for some interesting lines from Magner. However, just after the 7-minute mark the ban opens things up with a dancier jam, and this starts to get better, quickly.

Reactor begins the second set with a balls-to-the-wall trance jam. For the most part, I didn’t find much of this all that remarkable. The jam out of Nughufffer and into the beginning of Shem-Rah Boo is pretty generic jamfunk, but if you like the beginnings of Shem-Rah Boo extended, you’ll love this as it’s a bunch of that. The Shem-Rah jam is another solid-but-not-great dance jam. This seems to be the theme of the night. This one at least has some nice thematic work from Magner and Barber, and the interaction between Barber and Dean of Skydog Gypsy is pretty solid. Cyclone is butchered at various points, but to be fair it was NYE. First RLH jam goes nowhere, though the second jam has some great stuff in it. This is collaborative, primarily between Barber and Brownstein, but Magner’s textural stuff really helps as well. This gets thematic and they develop a multi-chord progression that has some real thought behind. The Waves jam is clearly the highlight of the night. They drop to half-time, and around the 15:00 mark, Brownstein drops in a second chord for the progression, and the rest of the band follows suit. Magner has some haunting leads, and Barber knows well enough to just hang out and vamp for a bit as his riff is working perfectly for the theme. When he eventually starts strumming chords, it feels so unbelievably natural and expected. Magner’s lead during this peak is phenomenal, and the band builds in such a great organic way that it genuinely feels like they’re mind readers for a little bit. This is just awesome. They eventually drop a kick drum and remember that they have to resolve to RLH to end the set. The rest of this is fine, but nowhere near what they did coming out of Waves in the half-time section. There’s no actual jam out of Highwire, just a “drop” segue into Alter Ego. There is a very short jam after Alter Ego which goes nowhere. They conclude the year with a short, direct jam which essentially heads immediately to Munchkin.

Highlights: Home Again, I-Man, Triumph, Shem-Rah, RLH (2), Waves**