December 12, 2008

Amazing 1st set and a great encore. That M.I.M. section! gorgeous with a capital G. The ''Little Lai'' jam to end 'Overture' is quite nice as well. The Helicopters jumps off shortly after this with a tremendous rush reminiscent of the 90's versions; straight into opening jam action. Barber and Brownie are the MVPs here while Allen rides the cymbals tastefully behind the 2 stringed members. It's perfect as the 2 guys on vocals are the aforementioned MVPs up until the sexy synth action from around 8minutes in, alongside the drum pad. At this point I thought for sure an I-Man was calling out but not until later. The jam halfway in Helix is very 'I-Man' ish. This "Manish" jam is beautiful and lasts a while until they ramp up the tempo and energy into Mach3 mode at 13:30. The Biscuits creeper jam will take us home in fashion. The way Jon and Allen play off each other at the end is special...Allen is from the Andromedan Galaxy lent to us by beings of the Light in case you missed the news. 'Magellan' starts typically for a while dotting the i's and crossing the t's until Brownie gives the strings and extra pull thus starting the wonderful psychedelic portion through the middle of the tune. So tight and spacey!! The roof is about the explode! Can this be THE 2.0 'Magellan'? This version is so good I won't shut up. Just unreal confidence. More peaks...more Allen! If this isn't the best 'Magellan' 2.0 then the 2nd half of part 1 is. Did I mention it's psychedelic paradise yet? Wow, that was intense...as we..slow down a....tad and follow the comfort and love of the vibrating bass chords to the thumping of Dr. Fameus' kick drum and then the tasteful pad action. Shall we go? You and I? Great intro, it really makes you drool for that official "I-Man" entry but no rush. A little afrobeat, some dancetronica, some psychedelifunk...it's all here pre-lyrics, officially 7 minutes into it, out of 22 minutes of an unfinished 'I-Man', this is good. ""Now that it's time to take my stand...." > 7 minutes of outro on the way. The first little ditty is what the kids call 'electronica' I believe :) ...Barber and Mr.Mags have a nice little moment here underneath the heat of a thunderous DnB jam. At 18:15 they are all in and going for it. Shit! that is a fun ending jam. Nothing too complex yet it really give you a smile and a tap on the ass. You will always know you're alive and OK when you start shaking it with pleasure while "Over it goes, I'm breakin through". Full marks Back to 'Magellan'. One of the best "jamband" songs ever written imo...'And We Fly! The hevenly jam comes riding in at around 6:30 with Barber in the hamster wheel solo on repeat while a nice summit is attained for a nice while at around 8:30+ ; this is great! The serene, classy ending of 'Magellan' is what we are left with after this incredible 1st set. ''Once around the world, and now I think I'm done''

The 2nd set could have been better but for most of the tunes are the jam portions only or the ending of said songs. The Crickets jam is pretty well done but the way they chopped the segue into a decent Astronaut was not so cohesive. Not terrible by any means but the chain of the set just doesn't real heady or display anything above 'pretty good' but the opening m80 should have stayed in the soundcheck position. Oh, Allen has learned 'The Very Moon' at this point. If you want a terrific 'tVM' from this period, please enjoy the Dec. 28 version that eventually melts into a monumental Dribble. Crazy good.

Do make the time / revisit set 1 and the encore at least...for a real good time.

ps - the sound from Nugs is terrific! A+

Fries with Mayo. Mike

{if you or someone you know is having difficulties getting off of or abusing benzodiazepines, please reach out. I took them for 21 years and have some tools in my toolbox that might help you greatly. peace. skyscoutATliveDOTca }

Overture to begin the show includes Story of the World and Little Lai teases throughout the composed middle section of the song. This is very neat, and it’s a little surprising how well all of these themes go together. Each member of the band takes turns dancing in and out of the various compositions, and this is a cool little treat for fans, particularly at such a fan-centric event. The jam out of a Little Lai immediately shifts into a very fast-paced, uptempo trance jam, almost reminiscent of something that would head into Little Betty Boop. Instead, this turns into Helicopters, and they horribly botch this transition. As big a fan as I am of Allen, it sounds like this is completely his fault, as well as the botch leaving Helicopters and into the jam. That said, the jam that follows in Helicopters is fantastic. Magner uses an arpeggiated patch throughout the entirety of this jam, and Barber has some great minimalist licks littered throughout. Around the 13-minute mark, Barber comes up with a fantastic melody that sort of dances around what Magner and Brownstein are doing. This is great, and Barber manages to move on to something else before wearing out this theme’s welcome. The first Magellan jam lasts almost 10 minutes, and is the usual cacophonous, tom-filled, odyssean jam. Magner and Allen are fantastic throughout this – particularly Allen. Barber is mostly directionless, meandering, and just generally uninteresting. His play is also relatively sloppy throughout the composed portions as well. That’s not necessarily a deal killer for me, but certainly doesn’t help.

The jam out of Magellan and into I-Man deserves its own paragraph here. I feel that in some ways, this jam hinted at what was to come in 2009. Brownstein and Magner begin this long, drawn-out intro jam with a little theme that sounds like it could be headed toward the end of Digital Buddha. Around the 1-minute mark, Allen starts dropping thirst quenchers, and he uses his e-drums in a very clever way. This is almost melodic drumming, in a sense. Barber’s play here is locked in, minimalist, and repetitive – elements that would become hallmarks of 2009. Magner dances around what Barber does with some plucky little synths to start, and around the 3-minute mark, the band almost feels like it’s going to do a dissolve and just begin the song. Instead, Allen builds this back up by bringing the beat back in, and Magner’s plucky synths become a little more prominent. Barber builds up his little riffs, and by the 5-minute mark, the band has a light dance jam on its hands, with some great rhythmic play from Barber. This is also the first time, to my knowledge, that Allen used his beat repeat FX, which are on display in the second half of this jam. The final theme that the band plays is a building, multi-chord, thematic jam, which features Barber and Magner building off of one another perfectly. The interplay they have going on at the 9-minute mark is particularly awesome. This jam would have been so at home in 2009.

The first I-Man jam is painful, which is a little humorous given that which preceded it. It sounds like Brownstein is on MIDI keyboard, but in looking back at the pictures from Holidaze, that was simply not the case. I guess he is somehow just terrible here. He is out of rhythm with the rest of the band, and badly. Barber and Magner are mostly okay, but honestly it’s hard for me to hear anything other than Brownstein. Awful. The second I-Man jam is a telegraphed jam back into Magellan. Even so, I enjoyed this, and Allen’s tom work is very satisfying. Magner has some cool, dripping psychedelia that he lays atop a lot of this jam in interesting ways. This is very jambandy, but I approve. The Magellan ending develops into the usual Holidaze “Stir it Up” jam, which is fine.

M80 is jamless. TVM first and second jams are exactly what you would expect. The lead-in to Crickets peak is mostly fine. The jam out of Crickets begins with some generic stuff, and leads into an uptempo peak as the band gets close to Astronaut ending. The entire ascension to Astronaut is unremarkable. I’m sure that this was a blast to be at, because the band keeps on building and building. However, the build that they are doing is basically each member of the band playing four half-notes into a resolve, which is not really that interesting to me. Eventually Brownstein shoehorns in the Astronaut ending bassline, and off we go. Interestingly, the jam out of Astronaut comes out of the ending. I was expecting an inversion, and instead they simply outro Astronaut, which is cool. The jam itself, is pretty meh. I didn’t hate this necessarily, but Magner was simply trying to do way too much. He has leads aplenty with the Virus, and while I absolutely love his choice of tone, he really doesn’t leave a lot of room for the other band members to fit in. Additionally, the peak into Digital Buddha kind of feels like it comes out of nowhere. The Kamaole jam features Magner on the square wave patch which I am always partial to. I like this little airy jam, even though it doesn’t last nearly long enough before dropping into Safety Dance. This has elements of Blissco and is very nice. The jam out of Safety Dance and back into Kamaole is just okay to end the show.

Highlights: Helix*, Magellan (2**), I-Man (2*), Kamaole