December 30, 2008

Morph begins the show with a straightforward type 1 jam that never really gets outside the box. Triumph has a spacey jam in it, and I feel like Barber is teasing something by Funkadelic in here at one point, but can’t for the life of me place it. Around the 8:30 mark, they drop things down very low and then begin a light, airy buildup, beginning with some very soft notes from Barber. The band is so restrained here, and this has a very interesting feel to it. The balance of the jam turns into an unremarkable dance jam, though notably this does feature Brownstein on the MIDI bass for a good chunk of it. The jam out of Ladies has some decent stuff from Magner going on, but for the most part I didn’t care about much of this jam. The jam out of RLH has a great Blissco section. This doesn’t last nearly long enough, but the interplay between Barber and Magner is awesome, and even though I don’t totally love the slap bass from Brownstein here, the jam overall is absolutely fantastic.

Set two begins with Memphis. The first jam is one of the hip-hop style first jams that were so popular around this time. Brownstein uses the MIDI keyboard for the entirety of this jam, and Allen has his full e-drum kit on display. He throws in several thirst quenchers and other effects, and Magner messes around with some overtly digital melodic leads. This is very good overall, despite the fact that it’s quite evident that Brownstein is still finding his footing with respect to the keyboard. With respect to the second jam, the band begins with a downtempo jam that is mostly just Brownstein and Allen to start. Allen throws in some of his beat repeat effects, but for the most part the early portion of this jam is the band trying to find its footing. Around the 18-minute mark, the band shifts into a double time drumbeat, and suddenly this turns into a dance jam. Magner uses the pan flute patch here, and Barber mostly limits himself to chord hits here and there. Magner uses the clavinet sound quite a bit in this jam, and that is intermingled with a lead tone on his Virus synth. The sound of the lead tone is fantastic; the usage of it I am less thrilled with. Magner is trying to do way, way, too much and at times this is almost like he’s just soloing on top of the rest of the band. I still came away enjoying this, but felt like a missed opportunity regardless. It is very evident that Brownstein really likes the baseline that he comes up with near the end of this jam. He repeats it multiple times, even repeating it up an octave or two. Admittedly, it is a cool baseline, but it’s kind of funny to just hear Marc get so into what he’s playing.

The SBMC jam features Allen dropping the e-kick fairly early on, and for the most part this seems like a forced, uninteresting dance jam. They shift downtempo into a Basis intro for about 2 minutes before dropping into Basis. In the composed section of Basis, Brownstein’s teases Sister’s Judy’s. The jam out is thematic, and almost sounds like the chord progression might be rehearsed. I’m not sure why that would be the case, as this is really not all that mindblowing overall, and oddly enough when they get out of this chord progression and into the Cyclone segue jam (which is clearly improvised) I think this is much better. Almost sounds like they’re headed toward Nughuffer for a good chunk of this, which I’m totally fine with here. The jam out of Cyclone begins with Brownstein repeating the same bass riff in various octaves, and it sounds like Barber is on a MIDI keyboard for part of this as well. However, looking at photos from the event, he had no keyboard. Therefore, I’m not totally sure what Barber is doing during this jam. They eventually drop from a dance jam into a spacey, psychedelic dub jam. This is really cool, and flows naturally back into an uptempo dance jam. The KOTW encore has a short extension of the song, but no real jam.

Highlights: RLH**, Memphis (1**, 2), Cyclone*

highlights:

THE SOUND! Great editing and mastering. Wide and deep soundstage with just about perfect imaging. This NYE run was a great turning point for shows available for purchase. They started to be way more consistent as we would see through 2009 and after. All 4 have equally strong db levels and impact on the sound.

Set 1 (another tremendous 1st set, it's all very good like the 1st, the show before) (great ecstasy jams)

pretty solid Triumph, always a great live experience, the segue is perrrrty. Ladies 9 minutes in with a serene Barber soft-touch solo, building into a great expressive type 1 affair alongside a heavenly soft and joyous bassline opening up into a stupendous and eerie soundtrack, only to end the last 8 minutes with a fiery funk situation. This Ladies is fuckin' fire! RLH jam !! top-of-the-food-chain Run Like Hell jam. A string of many blissful tension/release segments only to " betta run all day, run all night..." as the bass alarms set off what is to come in the last 7 minutes. Shallow Barber-less jamtronica with nice Magner ambiance. Slappy bassfunk sliced by Allen's high hat magiK. Very original and well appreciative RLH ending. full peak Confrontation. Very good! Screw it, I'm giving this Set One a 9.0 / 10 because the puzzle pieces fit perfectly, the sound is heavenly and Blisscuits are all over the place.

Set 2 (MEMPHIS! ~> Spacebird; some of Basis(1), especially Mags)

7.65 / 10

Bring back "Gimme Three Steps" !

''I dream about reefer five foot long
Mighty mizz but not too strong
Get me high but not for long
Oh yeah, now you know I love you when you're the viper''