December 26, 2008

{getting the NYears juices flowing at the Nokia in a "I ate too many medicated gummy bears" style}

Perhaps not the most pimped show of the run but I really like the 1st set and the Munchkin jamout ~> Handcuffs section of the 2nd. Let's take a gander at set 1.

They ran out of mana points in the second. And the first was pretty mellow.

[Floodlights ~> Shem-Rah Boo // ~> Little Betty Boop // ~> Svenghali (middle) ~> Kitchen Mitts, Robots[

That's what I dig about this 1st set. It can be: A) safe, low-key, lacking inspiration by some or B) a pretty psychedelic, no rush, no speeding tickets kind of mood. a funky excursion.

As a "B" volunteer I just find the set dubsteppy (perhaps Dub War opener did their job on them) and low key impressive. Don't think of this great set as too many tunes unjammed but an ocean of beautiful short and powerful waves. Minus the set ender.

the terrific>

~>Floodlights opener! What a great canoe trip on a lake. Well played. It gets nice and open towards then ending, approaching Shem with a solid jam, Marc eagerly awakening Shem from his sleep...nice transition

~>SRB....as Barber fades, Marc opens up the sky with the famous thumb-plucking groove of SRB. At only 10 minutes-ish, they have a written down a big setlist. Back to mellow for a DnB kicker, wide Magner sweeps and textured rhythm work from Barber. Is it the pinnacle of all Shems? No but, again, a nice dance-a-thon low key jam. I'm all in. Crescendo into...

~> Boop jam. Swirly Betty grooves nice n heady. Only around 4 minutes but it's quality. Short but oh so sweet this jam is. Everyone is on point in this bridge jam into....

~> Sven ending. Again just another 5 minute ender but the swinging and swaying in and out of these tunes all in different architecture is terrific. It's crossing T's and dotting I's time. Never let an unfinished tune linger in the ether too long. "'In wide open spaces we sing with strings Launch a full on musical cannonball"' ~>

~> K.Mitts. the familiar Mitts power chords welcome us ''just to say helloooooooo" Barber is a little outta tune at times but he gives it the College try. A standard version, no real jams but it fits well.

and then Robots happened....

~> Save the Robots. 1st jam is a loose tie affair, rowing the boat, nothing mind-blowing. Yep, this is definitely a quaalude moonlight show.
''They all make me daydream Take my piece and..'' At 11 minutes in Barber wakes up a bit and they embark on a "Trucker's Choice" meets "Catterpillar" type jam with oriental accents. Very cool; for around 2:22 lol. We get comfy in this washer dryer jam for around another 7 minutes. At 16 minutes there is a huge out of tune change that's pretty funny, chasing an off-speed pitch 3 feet in front of the plate type bad. This is akin to a grade 7 concert in the gym. Guys, THIS IS A GARBAGE DUMP OF A ROBOTS. CD 1 + end of "Invasion~>Handcuffs" is all you need.

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”

The New Year’s Eve run begins with an extended Floodlights intro. This starts with Allen doing some hi-hat work, and the rest of the band sort of comes in one by one. Barber initially begins with some spacey guitar à la Pink Floyd, Brownstein initially begins with single measure base hits, and Magner just starts with some textural fills over the top. Eventually Allen drops the beat, and the band begins a highly digital jam, which is predominantly Magner-led. Barber mostly plays in the background here, largely just repeating notes in a rhythmic way, and Brownstein essentially does the same. I sort of wish that Allen had played some e-drums here, because it feels like it would have fit perfectly, but I guess we can’t get everything we want. This is a fantastic intro jam to begin the run. The main Floodlights jam begins with the band really feeling things out, and after a couple minutes of filler, they develop an uptempo dub jam. Brownstein plays on the and of each beat here, and Barber uses (I believe for the first time) the effect that would soon become a staple in the composition for Uber Glue. This jam has an odyssean feel to it, with some neat melodic work from Magner. This shifts uptempo and loses a lot of its appeal in so doing. Barber tips the band’s hand here to the Shem-Rah Boo transition way, way too early, nearly 4 minutes before they switch. The SRB jam features a four-chord progression from Brownstein, and Barber almost sounds like he is thinking about teasing SBMC. The rhythm he plays is very close, but he never quite hits it fully. Magner does some cool textural stuff over the top, but this just felt like it was a little too straightforward and safe. The build into Boop is pretty straightforward as well, though they absolutely botch the drop into Boop. No jam after Boop, just a straight build into Svending, followed by the same kind of build into Kitchen Mitts. Save the Robots first jam begins fairly forgettably, but has a neat thing in it: this was the first time Brownstein used his MIDI keyboard (to my knowledge). At one point it almost sounds like Magner is going to tease the James Bond theme, but one of the notes is wrong, and I’m not sure if this is just a coincidence. Nothing else in this jam is all that noteworthy. Second Robots jam is straightforward DNB to end the set.

M80 is jamless. Munchkin Invasion has a fast-paced trance jam. Barber is all over the place in this jam, and he never seems to really find his footing. Brownstein is almost too stagnant here, repeating the same unremarkable bass riff for the healthy majority of this jam. Magner and Allen are both fine, but they’re not enough to overcome the boredom caused by the other two members. Instead of simply ending Munchkin they do an outro jam that quickly turns into an uptempo drum and bass jam. The content of this jam is basically all three melodic players playing an ascending riff that sounds like something out of an old Nintendo game. This and the segue that follows into Liquid Handcuffs are both pretty boring. That said, the jam out of Liquid Handcuffs has a very interesting theme in it. Around the 8:30 mark, Brownstein begins playing a VI-VII-I progression, and the melodic work of Barber and Magner on top of this is absolutely sublime. This actually sounds like it almost could be Portal to an Empty Head at different parts. Magner goes a little overboard with some of his melodic work, but ultimately my biggest complaint here is that this didn’t get developed enough. Very solid, regardless. By the 11:30 mark the band moves on to something else. What they move on is essentially a long i.e. 10+ minute, jam funk jam, which is an obvious intro for Story of the World. This is wholly unremarkable and lasts for way, way, too long. The jam in SOTA features Magner trying to do way too much once again. He’s using the Virus lead, and while I love the tone itself, he just gives the rest of the band no space to do anything. Brownstein eventually switches to the MIDI keyboard here, and the band develops a uptempo jam with dance elements, although it feels like the entirety of this is simply treading water. They wind up way too fast for the comeback into SOTW ending; I’m not sure why they felt the need to speed up so much. Brownstein explains before the encore that Rivers originally had the title “The Autumn Breathes.” Yikes. In any event, the jam is the same “rhythmic” Rivers jam that would become common in 2009.

Highlights: Floodlights (Intro**, 1), Liquid Handcuffs*