April 18, 2008

"And It's T For Tamarin Alley, Where The Bisco Mafia Know What To Do" Holy Sweet Drowning Jizz Moppers !

Never miss an Athens show. Allen steps it up a notch.

Yes, '08 has 3-18, 3-22, 6-8. 6-13, 7-19, 12-14 & 12-30 but these 2 Athens shows are my favorite of the year. Back to back chicken shack. It's a personal, objective love but all the boxes are checked for me over these 2 magical nights. For me, the 18th has one of the finest 1st sets going, especially the Morph ~> (><)Ladies. Holy shit. The A>A openers in A thens is top shelf as well. Apart from the encore, the ""Tricycle ~> Confrontation ~> Wizards"" is the "weakest segment" and even that half hour has tremendous goose-pimple production....sick.

Not much wrong with this show at all. As an one big entity, this show, emotionally at least for me, brings me back and gives me those Biscuits goosebumps that I chased and lived for 25 years now.

That Airsong into AC2B!!! Jiminy Christmas. "one day you're all locked up The next day you're free..."

[Grass~>Crystal Ball (inv)~>The Great Abyss~>Dusseldorph] Jam segment of the night? Yes.

< I got a quarter from Canada, That I bought it in the parking lot. >

The opening jam of 'GIG' is relaxed and techno-driven with nice ambiance synth cathedral chants from Magner's keys. While nothing mind blowing is going, the consistent space themes from the keys gets Big Red ready to enter by the back door with just a simple e-drum / hi hat go around. Barber will be taking the outro into 'Crystal Ball'. A little more volume, a little more power chords and a mesmerizing slow chord change from 'Gig' into >>

inv Crystal Ball. Great usual Crystal distortion as they express "Cheers to you it's like a dream you live by seeking fortunes at the door" jam 2 is the manic stage I like very much. The "mindless d" sound as Allen sounds like 2 drummers....seriously, it's nuts. The familiar 'Crystal' entry groove enters as Barber and his brother get a facelift, a tummy tuck and a nosering. Like a doctor, Barber ends it with a perfect full-on 69 opener. The final 5 minute jam is a tight and spacey groove as Barber is doing his minimal best, articulating each note wonderfully....slightly eerie. Tremendous as he stops to dance and let a great DnB jam develop with occasional Magner raven calls on loop. >>

Great Abyss~>> a 20 minute gem here starting with a call and answer phrasing on guitar to everyone else. Magner is playing video games. Perhaps Dig-Dug or Galaga. Brownie is low, keeping the snakes at bay. 3 minutes in marks full entry with a wonderous, joyful, get and be your funky self dance sensation. Very 2 jam, staying cool in the pocket. This chillness is an example of the '07/'08 to '09 pre-shift (IMO) It's all Mr. Mags and Barber here. A sort of an I-man tuned jam. LOVE-LY. This is how '98 to '02 STS9 used to blow are brains apart. The Abyss is entered at officially 9 mins and 12 seconds. Ding Dong! Ding Dong! .........Ding Dong! Ding Dong! It's a rave with one of the world's best guitarist. Oh yes, it's a 'Great Abyss" you've heard many times but the sheer crispiness of Jon's guitar tone and approach in the last 10 minutes is disgusting. 16 minutes, 4 to go, final jam. Magner and Barber continue in a psytrance destruction of the Universe. This is so fun. It seems a backwards talking dolphin has entered the conversation as the FINAL STRETCH is played.>>>>

~>>> 100 mph entry into DUSSELDORPH's peak. Perfectly played. "MORPH MORPH FROM DUSSELDORPH!! CHANGING ALL THE TIME!!! Fists in the air, exhausted, happy, thirsty, those fucking lights! Lasers shooting from everywhere.....

THERAPY for real.

Let your spirit listen to this as much as your attention to detail.
May your memories of magical nights gone by fill your heart with appreciation, hope and a strengthening of how this music heals what ails ya.

LOVE will see u through ~>>>>>>>>>

04/18/08

Air Song has an 8+ minute “middle” jam that just doesn’t do much for me. There’s a portion near the peak that I thought got better, but beyond that, this is fairly straightforward. Barber’s play near the peak is really great, but other than that the jam itself is unremarkable. However, the jam out of Air Song is really cool. This begins as a sort of ethereal jam, with some spacey stuff from Magner and a simple, hypnotic riff from Barber. As they shift uptempo a little bit, this gets into a great groove and the opening notes of AC2B start to ring out. The first AC2B jam begins as fairly straightforward, but around the 12:30 mark, Barber hits some really wonderful little licks, and this turns into a gorgeous Blissco jam. This could have really gotten to the next level if it had a little more runway. Unfortunately, they head back into the middle of AC2B after just a minute or so. The second jam begins with a happy-go-lucky jam, led by Magner on the Rhodes-y patch. This slowly gains in momentum, building toward the peak. I enjoyed most of this, albeit not as much as the jam which preceded it. I’m not sure this really becomes a highlight for me at any point, but it’s not bad by any means.

The jam out of Morph is one of my all-time favorites. This begins as a pretty typical Morph jam for the first couple minutes, complete with slap bass from Brownstein, predictable stuff from Barber, etc. However, at 4:50, the band takes things down to almost nothing, and Barber’s simple, effective guitar lead becomes the foundation for a totally different jam. Brownstein and Magner play off of one another beautifully, with a descending, poignant progression that sets the stage wonderfully. After a minute or so of this, Barber hits a minimalistic guitar lead at 6:03 as Magner switches to a stringed pad, and this shifts gears to become an absolutely breathtaking piece of Blissco. This is a perfect example of less is more, and each member of the band knows well enough to just let this play out for a bit. Absolutely wonderful, and should be heard by even casual fans of this band. Almost as if they’re not content for this to just be “great,” Barber comes up with an even more wonderful “peak” riff around the 7:50 mark. Glorious stuff. Then, somehow on a dime the band flips to an ominous, dark sounding dance jam which is ridiculously cool in its own way. After this dark jam plays out for a bit, the band shifts gears yet again and builds up a fantastic Ladies peak with its own neat jam. Three fantastic jams in one, with one of them being an all-timer. Not bad at all.

The jam out of Ladies had this sort of circus-y melody from Magner for a lot of it. I’m not terrible interested in this, and it goes on way, way too long without any change for my liking to end the set.

Tricycle is a random bustout 5 years after its debut. Alright then. Anyhow, the jam itself here is from nothing, and this has a very slightly different progression/sound than what would ultimately become Tricycle as it’s known today. Much more of a major key sound than the Buddha-clone that it later became. The Confrontation jam begins with a section that sounds almost like they’re going to do an inverted Abyss, but this flips into a darker jam. I actually enjoyed most of the jam, but Brownstein tips their hand to Wizards in Winter way, way, way too early, and it kind of torpedoes the jam for me. Grass is Green gets into some dark trance jamming almost immediately. If you’re into duntzgeon Biscuits, this jam is for you. This is a dark onslaught with very minimal thematic work. The first several minutes of the Crystal Ball jam begin with some relatively forgettable stuff from the entire band. They engage in a start/stop jam that does nothing for me. This starts to get more interesting as they make a deliberate shift towards a long, drawn out Abyss intro jam. This lasts 7-8 minutes, and has some great parts littered throughout. Magner in particular uses this patch that has an almost underwater sound, and provides a great overall vibe for the entire jam. I never thought they quite hit the second gear, but overall I enjoyed those jam. The jam out of Abyss begins with Magner using the same underwater effect. This feels for a moment like it will become a standard dance jam, however the band shift instead to an almost cacophonous sound. The dissonance from Magner and Barber’s weaves together and apart, contracting and expanding in an interesting way, and while I enjoyed this a lot, again it never feels like it gets to that next level. This is really interesting and a fairly unique sound, but eventually they just pull the rip cord and head towards the ending to Morph to end the set.

Highlights: Air Song (2), AC2B (1*), Morph**, GIG, Crystal Ball*, Abyss*