June 05, 2008

Great time in downtown Buff. Before and after their show a group of around 12 of us had BBQ chicken and all the trimmings with the band and a few crew a block away. Good times. Not enough paper towels. Sauce ALL OVER. They were very excited about BRoo (nughuffer explained too) and that show worked out pretty good :) :) :)

This show was great, truly. But it's a story of 2 chunks of funk:: {I} Nughuffer ~> Jigsaw Earth(mid/end) , the return of Floes! {II} Floodlights ~> Digital Buddha(INV = one of the best opening jams) ~> Cyclone ~> Run Like Hell ~> //

Dynamite playing. All of June pre 'Roo is dynamite! If I recommend anything to go to right away it would be the 2nd set. The 1st 2 hours of said set II is tremendous.

The next night!? Favorite show of 2008. The Webster was alive with kindness and puddles for everyone. Scott and Brad from Max Creek were beside us near the front. Great guys. Partook in our paper we offered. Incredibly hot but the sound was exquisite.

^^ Strain in memory of June '08 ^^

[Cataract Kush] one of the dankest Kush's, of course, it's crossed with O.G. Kush and LA Confidential. It's a CREEPER like mf. Fubar and jelly legs. Potent....

Peace & Ice Cream.

Very solid version of Kitchen Mitts. Jamless, but well played and ending section is solid. Nughuffer has an extremely lazy story from Brownstein which basically consists of, “We’re on tour right now and headed to Bonnaroo next week.” Awesome stuff. The Nughuffer jam begins with the usual dark trance, but becomes a meandering, boring jam (particularly Barber). There’s a middle/ending jam in Jigsaw Earth with more aimless jamming, this time in dub flavor. Floes doesn’t do much for me either, and after a KITNO cover and a forgettable Lai jam, we’re into the second set with little to show for ourselves.

The Floodlights jam begins the second set with a jam considerably better than anything from the first set. This begins with a nice hip-hop tempo jam with loads of great melodic stuff from Magner. Barber, shows much more patience here and is focused on some chord strumming that fits nicely with the jam. This turns into an uptempo, tom-heavy jam. This develops faster and faster until they’re in a swirling Buddha peak. Nicely done. The jam out of Buddha has some solid thematic work from Barber and Magner. Nothing earth-shattering here, but well played and catchy.

This version of Cyclone is one of the best of all-time. The first couple of minutes, they struggle to find their footing, and feels like this could turn into a monotonous breakbeat jam full of repetition. Instead, around the 18-minute mark, Barber comes up with a wonderful descending little melody. Almost on cue, Magner drops in this long, sweeping synth and Brownstein picks up a multi-chord progression. Barber adds in some flair on the end of the riff, and in just a minute or so we got a stew goin. Allen adds in e-drums to complete the sound, and this evolves into one of the best Blissco jams ever. They let this play out marvelously without too much of a change until Allen drops the four-on-the-floor beat around the 22-minute mark. Barber continues the strummed note pattern, and Magner’s sine lead coupled with the continuation of the long sweeping pads continues to provide a vibe that is, simply put, ethereal. Near the end of the Cyclone track, Magner comes in with a descending lead played on the Virus, and he alternates between this and the sine lead, while Barber starts playing more intensely. The point where this jam goes from great to otherworldly is at exactly 0:29 on the Run Like Hell track. Magner adds a response to Barber’s call, and the second chord is determined based on where he lands After multiple run-throughs of this, Magner switches back to the Virus lead and plays the same riff while Barber continues growing in intensity. The entire band does a phenomenal job of building this peak organically, and at 2:17, Barber lands on this siren call peak riff that on its own would be amazing. Unsatisfied with just being absolutely amazing, at 2:30 he adds a second part to this peak riff. He returns to the main peak riff for several bars, but at 3:08, he adds this second part back in as the peak-within-a-peak. He is absolutely on fire in this entire segment, and while this was really Magner’s jam, Barber is the one who helps them to really stick the landing. If I had one complaint about the entire jam it would be that after this perfect peak, they peak again, though this last peak is basically just everybody playing as fast as they possible can before the drop into RLH.

The jam out of RLH has a lot of potential. The entire band locks in on a VI-VII-I progression, and while this is nice, they really never hit that next level before they switch into the dissonant sound of the ending of Nughuffer. The CWB jam to end the set is entirely forgettable. Lithium encore is offensive.

Highlights: Floodlights*, Buddha, Cyclone**, RLH