March 14, 2008

Astronomy Domine begins with a 3-4 minute ambient jam, which is great. I loved this. Caterpillar begins with a neat melodic theme from Magner atop a straightforward trance beat. This is a disappointing jam in many ways. It felt like they really hit on something very cool near the end of the Caterpillar track, but they essentially immediately shift from this into the Orch Theme intro. Could have been very cool if they’d have extended what they were working with. The same is essentially true of the Orch Theme jam. This is fine, but had more potential than it turned into. I like the first several minutes of the Strobelights jam a fair amount. They eventually pull the ripcord and just head toward Cyclone. Again, I felt like they could have extended this. The jam out of Cyclone is really cool sounding. I wish Marc wasn’t so obvious with the Strobelights return, almost from the start of this jam. I noted this as a highlight, but would have been nice if he’d have joined the rest of the band in getting a little more experimental here. Allen throws in some thirst quenchers near the end of the jam for good measure. The Air Song jam has a great vibe to it, but there’s not a lot interesting going on in this jam otherwise. The Have a Cigar encore is jamless, for an end to a mostly forgettable show.

Highlights: Astronomy Domine (Intro*), Cyclone