December 27, 2008

Orch Theme begins the show with another intro jam. Barber has a great little riff that becomes the central theme for this jam, which he comes back to multiple times. Magner plays mostly textural stuff here, and Brownstein’s play is extremely minimal, just serving as additional rhythm along with Allen’s steady kick beat. This is a fantastic little duntzgeon jam, and this is exactly what I want out of Barber. Almost sounds for a bit like this could be a Gangster intro, but Brownstein eventually drops the Orch Theme baseline. The jam out of Orch into Tricycle is one of those things that was amazing at the time, but in retrospect this is really just a huge peak. The jam preceding the peak portion is just alright. The jam out, however, is absolutely phenomenal. This has such a great vibe to it, and Barber’s minimal riff that serves (again) as the central theme is poignant and melancholic. Very pretty, ethereal stuff, and the rest of the band follows suit. The jam out of 42 has another very pretty jam. This one is a little more straightforward Blissco, and Barber uses the “Uber Glue” guitar tone here a bunch. The band crafts this happy-go-lucky theme, and while I love it, they don’t seem to elaborate that much here. They switch to minor key for the transition back to Orch Theme. The themes they hit in the segue to Orch Theme are very cool too, especially Magner. The last jam out of Orch Theme and back into 42 is very solid, though not nearly as interesting and multi-dimensional as the several jams preceding it in this monster segment.

The second set begins with a Funkadelic cover and a Tuphace original. These are both bad, and the (long) funk jam that precedes the Funkadelic cover is boring. The band then plays a jamless Tamarin Alley. What a letdown this second set is, at least to start, after the monster set 1. The jam in Reactor has some cool parts, particularly the short portion of major key jamming, but nothing really has a chance to breathe here before dropping into Dribble. The Dribble jam quickly shifts uptempo into a fast-paced trance jam for the return to Reactor. Nothing here all that interesting. The jam out of Spraypaint begins fairly typically, but the band quickly shifts into a Middle Eastern sounding jam as the band shifts toward Shimmy. This is neat, but as soon as they hit the Phrygian key headed to Shimmy, this is basically just a long Shimmy ending jam. B&C has a bunch of teases from Magner and Barber of “Standing on the Verge of Getting it On,” which are fine. This is basically just a long jam on that song. Eh. The Buddha encore jam features some really cool sounds from Magner, and while Barber is a bit all over the place here, I’m willing to let it slide on account of how cool Magner’s stuff is.

Highlights: Orch (Intro**, 2), Tricycle**, 42*, Spraypaint, Buddha

On paper it might not look like much but this show great!! The first set is killer. Started with a random jam and went full sliced up orch 42. Second set had some guest appearances and some solid fun jams but for the most part from tamarin til the end was best part of show. Reactor/dribble sandwich was probably my favorite part. Spraypaint (unf) > shimmy (end) was significant cuz they finished those both together in NoHo the next tour. Buddha stand alone finished the show respectively. Good times