April 20, 2008

The show begins with a 20-minute version of Fiddler. The jam here begins as a plodding, rock jam that feels like they’re treading water for several minutes. Fortunately, around the 13-minute mark, something new happens and they drop a trance beat. This turns into a dark, atmospheric trance jam fairly quickly, although I don’t think they ever really land on a theme that piques my interest very much. The 42 jam is instantly thematic, featuring Magner using a combination of a synth lead and the angel choir. Despite the fact that the band is very much on the same page, this again just never really got me interested. This eventually shifts into a DNB jam, which again does very little for me. There’s no jam out of Svenghali. Instead, they sort of do a mashup with the outro guitar riff from Sven and the beginning of Rockafella. Rockafella begins with the usual downtempo jam, but quickly shifts uptempo into a mysterious-sounding dance jam. This is the first highlight of the night for me, and while it’s nothing outstanding, it’s at least enough to keep my interest through the return to 42.

The jam out of Hope begins with the usual DNB jam, but thanks in large part to Magner and Brownstein, this becomes thematic and interesting. Barber dances around the theme that Brownstein/Magner have built, and while he meanders for a bit, he ultimately finds some neat stuff to add here and there. This gets darker and darker until they get into the Reactor ending, and we’re off to a solid start for the second set. The Memphis jam begins with the usual overly digital sound that so many Memphis’s had around this time period. This is very cool, and has several very neat parts, but never feels like they get to that second level beyond just sounding cool. There’s one point during the jam that feels like it might be headed for the beginning of Basis, but they ultimately pull back and drop back into the middle of Memphis. The jam out of Memphis and into Grass is Green is mostly solid, though it does begin with a few minutes of filler. The second half of this jam has a nice groove to it, and the transition into GIG is well done. There is no jam out of GIG, but rather the band drops immediately into Kamaole Sands. Kamaole has a breakbeat jam with darkness from the start. This lasts 5-6 minutes and no part of it is memorable. The Spaga jam begins with a half-time jam, but quickly reverts to the usual DNB jam. Magner busts out the pan flute patch, and while I normally am not a big fan of their DNB, this particular jam has an interesting feel to it — largely as a result of the pan flute. Unfortunately this feel is short-lived and they return to forgettable DNB for the second half of the jam. The second Spaga jam begins with a fantastic piano theme from Magner, but not much else. This goes nowhere before getting back to Kamaole. The encore has a very brief transition jam that lasts all of 30 seconds to end the show.

Highlights: Rockafella, Hope, Memphis (1*, 2)