December 31, 2008

All praise to the opener. I know you got eyes, I know you got time. When approached correctly, patiently and with optimism (a little more difficult on a New Years show) you can open the gates of heaven. Everyone gets jumpin, smilin' as they bring their ass to the party. This one helps that the recording are stellar as apposed to some '08 shows that are F.O.H. mudbaths. In a word, 7-11 is crispy. One jam is a smooth masterclass in flow the other a BnD dance party. It's perfect at around 13 minutes long and unfinished, they travel far and wide and superb beats by Aucoin...he slays this tune. It brings 1.0 memories from 2001-09-09 Jersey, 2001-11-02 Portland and one of the best chopped up version, appearing 3 times with lots of time on each a la 2002-11-09 at the Vic.

The Barber led slow and pronounced segue into "RCandy" is butta. Rock Candies from this time were all pretty standard with 2 escape routes for Barber or Mags to explore. At around 7:30 Magner boomerangs a velvety synth carpet in a 360 pattern for a tiny bit as Marc is hanging back keeping the house of cards stable as Barber floats in a little later. Again, a magically straightforward approach yet inspiring. Playing his solo-ing hi and low and back again. It may be the uze but damn, this night really demonstrates wonderful control and good amounts of gently easing the band into a jam section that they all agree on and seem to know ahead of time...cause they do.

13 minutes into RC the ending. THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP. Allen is summoning the change...they will be going onward.

Neckbeard makes it's obligatory New Year's appearance. I was really hoping the jams were going to lead us into ecstasy like no other. I hadn't listened to this show in a few years. It's fairly standard but the theme of the set so far holds true. Relaxed, a molasses like guitar solo midway surrounded by psychill sweeps from Magner. They loop this jam for many bars. Enjoyable as hell, "we have all night".

~> "Truckers". An interesting choice but, in my opinion kind of a mood killer. Maybe a little too harsh in my opinion but meh. But, the star here is Mr. Magner. A little funk, some Herbie jams, hammond attacks and great companionship to Barber's chorus solo at around 7 minutes in. I thought a swing back to finish up 7-11 would have been crunchy as hell but a nice segment!

Caterpillar. Great jam portion. Slick as hell. Very much a building jam, there are sweet peaks ahead assured. The best part is the drop down at around 9 minutes when Jon just goes warp 10 on this solo. Staying on the high notes, tickling the tantric climax.

Terrific set. Barber and Magner in top form.

7-11 is always a fantastic opener with opportunities for a ton of high energy. This one begins with a straightforward type 1 jam for the first, and a straightforward trance jam for the second. The first is fine, second is quite good. There’s a lot of great stuff from Magner here, and Barber is mostly very restrained and focused on minimal riffs. The Rock Candy jam is about as straightforward and filler a dance jam as it gets. Allen busts out some thirst quenchers, and there are a couple melodic portions of this that I enjoyed, but overall pretty forgettable. The Vassillios jam is more filler, and it felt a little bit like nothing happened here until they just started playing Trucker’s Choice. Trucker’s has a slow, jambandy jam that features a lot of Magner on organ. Does nothing for me. The Caterpillar loop sounds like it has a beat repeat applied that shouldn’t be there, and this sounds super glitchy — not necessarily in a good way. The jam itself is again, pretty safe, although this one is mostly solid. All in all, this was a very safe first set, which makes sense given that it was NYE.

Second set begins with jamless versions of Uber Glue and Tamarin Alley. The first Spaga jam begins with the usual DNB beat, only to quickly switch to a half-time feel. Barber and Magner have some really interesting communication here, and the band develops this neat little happy-go-lucky jam for a bit. This section is very cool, and they shift away from it for 30 seconds or so only to get back into it. Brownstein leans on to one of his dub basslines, which feels like a bit of a crutch for him, but I actually think this works out nicely because he and Allen create a fantastic pocket together. This doesn't last nearly long enough as I'd like. The second jam is a type 1 jam that never stretches its legs. This version of the SITA jam lasts only 4-5 minutes or so, and only just barely stretches outside of type 1 area for just a moment. That said, this is absolutely fantastic, beautiful, and basically exactly what I want from a SITA jam. The second jam is totally forgettable, though this does lead to the ending countdown. The Helicopters jam is absolutely fantastic. Right out of the gate, this is dark, trancey dance jamming. The progression they mess around with, combined with Magner's tone, sounds a lot like they're headed for Lunar Pursuit. Instead, this is just a really cool jam that gets out there. Barber eventually turns on this guitar effect that almost makes his guitar sound like a sitar. They build this into a really great jam and subsequent peak. There's some really glorious stuff from Barber near the peak, and even after they shift out of the peak and into the next segment of the jam, there's still 8 minutes in the Helicopters track. Crazy. The remainder of this jam features a heavy e-kick drum from Allen, and around the 17-18 minute mark, the band gets into a dark, digital jam. This is very cool as well, and eventually gives way to a breakbeat pattern from Allen and the band slides into Air Song. Air Song begins with a downtempo jam with some weird accented guitar hits from Barber. Magner plays around with the pan flute patch for a very short time, and the band quickly shifts uptempo into dance groove for the segue back into Helicopters. The last few minutes before the band gets to Helix is a decent build, but nothing here all that noteworthy.

The third set begins with a jamless version of Meditation. Rivers has the usual, short type 1 jam. I really enjoy these little Rivers jams, even though they’re all basically different versions of the same little section of music. If this was more than 3 minutes long, I might be noting it as a highlight, but alas, it is not. I have always adored the ending of this song, and wish they would have turned it into the monster it should have been. Oh well! HSR is next, and is also jamless. What follows is Magellan, which is effectively the only song with real jams in the entire set. Not ideal for the final set of the year, but what can you do? The first Magellan jam is the usual, tom-filled jam. Nothing much to see here. The second jam turns into a dub jam, which is fine. Initially. Then Brownstein flips on the “reggae” accent, and introduces their “good friend” Matisyahu. Ugh. Not a great ending to the set. Nughuffer has a little story from Marc about Bill Clinton smoking weed. The jam itself is far, far, too short. Only 3-4 minutes long. I still noted this as a highlight, as it is pretty cool. This features the guy from The Egg, also. Cool.

Highlights: 7-11 (2*), Caterpillar, Spaga (1), Helicopters**, Nughuffer