February 03, 2009

Munchkin begins with a meandering, direction less jam. However around the 10 minute mark, the band shifts directions and gets markedly more focused. I thought this was a little better, and noted it as a highlight. Around the 12-minute mark, Brownstein bus out one of his trusty dub refs, which he overlays atop the jam despite the four-on-the-floor beat. After playing this riff several times, he basically just starts playing the Towers of Dub riff. From here on out, there is some really good stuff, although they never get too far out of second gear. Triumph begins with the usual hip-hop tempo jam, and for the most part this is Barber just doing his best Barber Rock God impression, to mixed results. Around the 8-minute mark, the band shifts to a double-time jam, and get into a DNB segment to head into Pilin’ it High(er). The Pilin’ jam is at times straight-up difficult to listen to. This is so frenetic, so all over the place, and just generally annoyed me. KOTW features Marc on the MIDI keyboard almost from the very beginning. They struggle a bit to get going here, but when they finally get moving around the 5:30 mark, this has a great, dark, dancy sound. Around the 8:20 mark, Allen drops the snare on the 2 and 4, and this sounds a lot like they’re headed for Cyclone. This is very nice, even if it’s pretty straightforward. The RC jam is even more straightforward, but this too is solid. Well-played from everybody, albeit with a fairly abrupt shift into the ending.

SRB has another decent jam, although Magner’s siren noises almost killed this one for me. Barber is locked in and probably playing too many notes here, but I still found myself enjoying this a lot. Confrontation begins with a dark, dissonant dance jam that shifts into Munchkin territory about a minute before the end of the Confrontation track. I thought the last couple minutes (the Munchkin peak) were really well done, but the portion before that left me a little wanting. Noted it as a highlight regardless, but missed opportunity for sure. Both of the HDPF jams are straightforward and wholly forgettable. The SITA jam is 5-6 minutes long and with the exception of 30 seconds or so, this is firmly type 1 the entire time. Second jam begins with some meandering play from Barber and Magner, but around the 16-minute mark, as Brownstein hits a four chord progression, Barber and Magner get a little more reined in. This still doesn’t do much for me, but at least better than how it started. Mitts encore is obviously jamless.

Highlights: Munchkin*, KOTW*, Rock Candy, SRB