April 03, 2008

The 2nd set opening ''Triumph ~> Morph Dusseldorf ending ~> Munchkin Invasion'' is one of the most satisfying opening triple to a set I've heard in a while in the 2.0 era. Especially that 'Triumph'!! The 'Spacebird' outro jam is one the creepiest, well executed jams of the spring. So much to say, review and re-live but I feel the suggestion of "listen to the 2 HG shows" is sufficient.

What’s the difference between a hippie chick and a joint?

The joint won’t make it all the way around the circle.

(my fiance gave me permission to share this joke :)

The show begins with a minute-long ambient intro jam. I don’t even really care if this was short, and even if it was just them messing around. I like it. For the most part, this Abraxas jam is forgettable. Around the 13-minute mark, Magner busts out the angel choir patch and this part is much more interesting. Unfortunately, they don’t really go anywhere with this. Shem-Rah begins with a lot of filler. Around the 12-minute mark, they hit a section that feels like they are going to head into the SITA section of Astronaut. Around 16:30 they embark on a much more digital sounding jam, with some psychedelic swirling sweeps from Magner on top of the jam and e-drums galore from Allen. They develop a great little pocket here, and while this isn’t the most interesting, or outside the box by any means, this was pretty nice. This leads beautifully to the patient, well-played Spacebird ending. The Memphis first jam is one of the typical hip-hop e-drum heavy jams of this era. Right out of the gate, Magner has some really cool stuff going on with his plucky synth. I’m not crazy about Barber’s tone to complement this, but overall this was very solid. Magner has some really tripped out spacey stuff later in the jam that works really well. That said, they absolutely botch the drop back into Memphis. Yuck. The second jam quickly shifts into an uptempo jam. I really wanted to like this, but Barber is sort of in his own world just meandering, doing whatever he wants. Didn’t care for the rest of this.

The beginning of Triumph is the typical drum and bass jam. Around the 5-minute mark, they drop to half-time and this turns into a spaced out downtempo jam. This section is really cool. They eventually shift back to double-time and hit a full-on, dark drum and bass jam. There’s a portion near the 10-minute mark with a pretty clear fakeout of inverted Aquatic Ape, or at minimum a pretty obvious tease. This flips back into Triumph instead, with a sloppy drop back in. The first few minutes of the second Triumph jam are a little aimless between both Barber and Magner. There is a brief Gamma Goblins tease. To be honest, most of this jam does nothing for me until they hit the uptempo portion. There’s a melody/harmony Barber and Magner hit on around the 2-minute mark and carry for the next minute or two which is really neat. I considered marking this as a highlight just based on this, but considering there are 10 minutes of otherwise forgettable stuff which precede and follow this section, not so much. The jam out of Morph ending sounds almost immediately like they’re headed to Munchkin, but then they don’t pull the trigger and continue on with an unrelated jam for 8+ minutes anyway. I don’t find much in this jam redeeming or interesting. They certainly get faster and faster as they get closer to Munchkin beginning, but there’s no theme or progression here. This is jamming just to jam, and I won’t stand for it. The Munchkin jam has a great little call-and-response from Barber/Magner, and Magner’s using a modified sine wave tone that he uses so often in 2.0 Munchkin jams. This interplay between Barber and Magner is really interesting and feels like they’re just dancing around each other. Great stuff. Mastermind begins with a dance jam, and Allen drops the e-kick fairly quickly. In a shocking turn of events, this turns out to be the best jam of the night. The band plays a great Blissco theme for several minutes, and Barber’s tone and phrasing are both absolutely fantastic. Magner’s pads on the top of the jam provide a great leisurely feel which eventually gives way to the minor key feel of the Ladies ending. Pretty clear-cut best version of Mastermind of all-time, though that’s a low hurdle to clear. World is Spinning has a rare jam, though admittedly this is basically a type 1 jam the entirety of it and really is doing nothing interesting or novel. The Caterpillar encore is filled with great Magner leads, earning it a highlight, but beyond that, this is basically a standard Caterpillar jam.

Highlights: Rockafella (Intro), SRB, Triumph (1), Munchkin*, Mastermind**, Caterpillar