February 15, 2009

Uber Glue begins the show with an actual jam, and this feels how an Uber Glue jam should feel. Atmospheric, midtempo, not arbitrarily tacked on, etc. This is well done, and Brownstein’s MIDI keyboard work is solid. Morph begins with a typical midtempo “funk” jam. However, around the 5:30 mark, Magner starts playing this little 3-note descending pattern on a sine wave, and Barber responds by adding a second chord to his theme at the 6:06 mark. This turns into a great little theme between Barber and Magner, and Brownstein is smart enough to just follow these two along for the ride. Around the 7:15 mark, Allen drops the four-on-the-floor beat, and the band have a full-on thematic piece of Blissco going on here. When Magner adds in the big square wave lead around the 7:45 mark, it just takes this to the absolute next level. Great stuff. At the 9:50 mark, they finish up this theme, and it sounds clear Brownstein and Magner thought this would be a straight-up drop into 42. However, instead they vamp on this 42 intro jam for a while. This intro jam turns into a very cool dance jam with a catchy bassline from Brownstein before finally dropping into 42 a few minutes later.

The jam out of 42 is an absolute all-timer. The first few minutes consist of this airy jam with Magner on the strings/piano, and Brownstein playing a repeated four-chord pattern while Barber repeats this clever little riff. This almost feels a bit similar in tone to Shem-Rah Balloon, but obviously nowhere near on the same level. In any event, at around the 13:30 mark, the band shifts from this jam into an e-drum heavy, highly digital jam in a minor key. This begins the band’s shift toward Spacebird, but what follows is absolutely ridiculous. Allen is all over the e-drums, and there is such great use of his beat repeat effects here combined with Magner and Barber’s more digital instrumentation. Brownstein is smart enough again to just sort of be along for the ride, and this is probably the best Spacebird intro jam of all-time. Magner’s little sine wave lead is so simple, but fits what they’re doing here so perfectly, and this is so amazingly catchy and dancy that you can’t help but bob your head.

Spacebird has a jam in the middle that lasts about two minutes in a unique spot. Not only is this an unusual spot, the jam itself is also relatively unusual with Barber using this digital guitar effect and the band sort of vamping on the root note. Ultimately, I really enjoyed this although it was way too short. The jam out of Spacebird sort of carries the same energy, at least initially. The first few minutes are almost like a continuation of the middle jam and again, I generally enjoy that, although they don’t really expand on this theme all that much. As the band hits the Morph track, the theme shifts fairly deliberately towards the Morph return, and Barber has some interesting sort of bluesy riffs that he starts throwing in. Doesn’t redeem this fully, but I didn’t hate either.

A jamless High Speed Racer begins the second set. Next up is Buddha with a five-minute long intro jam. While I enjoyed this, it was fairly one note, and I also felt Brownstein dropped the Buddha bassline far too early. The jam out of Buddha initially begins with a bunch of Barber noodling. At around the 11:30 mark, Magner comes in with this little chord theme, accented by his glassy, plucky synth. This carries through into the Cyclone track, and for the first minute Barber has a great array of riffs that lead into a nice chord pattern. From 1:00 to 4:00, the band embarks on a fantastic build, with Brownstein doing a lot of the quarterbacking through different chord progressions. This is incredibly solid, with my only real complaint being that rather than slam into Cyclone, they sort of have this afterglow session where the band lays on the root note before finally hitting the composition for Cyclone. The first few minutes of the jam out of Cyclone are largely filler. This sounds like they could be headed to the ending of Abyss, but eventually they pull back and shift to a half-time beat. The next 3-4 minutes are very cool, although again I feel like Brownstein’s drops the bassline for Buddha ending far too quickly. That said, I again thought this whole segment was pretty cool. The I-Man intro jam is a 4-minute long, completely filler, straightforward jam. The first jam in I-Man only lasts about two minutes and is again, filler. However, in this case, they add in this two bar, four-note descending pattern at the end of the stanza, and I’m honestly unsure what they found so compelling about this. It’s a straightforward descending pattern, with really nothing interesting going on, and yet they seem to enjoy this so much that they continue to play this after they return to the I-Man composition. Baffling. The second I-Man jam is again, filler, and this only lasts 2 minutes or so before the “every day when I kiss her hand section.”

What follows is the closest the band has ever come to psytrance. This begins with Brownstein on the MIDI keyboard immediately, and Magner starts triggering his psychedelic arp patch over the top of everything while Barber just sort of vamps for a bit. Allen drops the e-kick at 12:48, and we’re off and running. The next couple of minutes are mostly just psychedelic noise from everybody in the band, until about 14:18 when Magner brings in a great lead tone. The next couple of minutes feature Magner at center stage with this synth, crafting a dark, ominous lead melody that the rest of the band follows along. Near the end of the I-Man track and beginning of the Ladies track, Barber brings in some chord stabs which serve as a great accent. At the 0:40 mark in the Ladies track, Barber and Allen hook up for a great build, and coming out of this build Magner has some absolutely psychotic arps that build this into an even more psychedelic whirlwind of sound. Barber’s guitar riff adds on a great element as he adds a second chord, and at the 1:45 mark he drops in a less ominous chord to signal to the band that he’s done with this section and wants to move on to Ladies. The rest of the band follows in kind, with Marc leading the charge to Ladies. At 2:15, Marc’s bass progression makes up the resulting build into Ladies. Barber finds a fantastic little riff, and they let this play out for a bit before he starts adding little frills on to it. Magner’s pad washes come on top of everything here, and the descending chord pattern Barber starts throwing in around the 3:41 mark are fantastic. This was already an all-time great jam, and then Magner takes it to an even higher level with some absolutely unreal melodic work and phrasing at the 4:15 mark. This is such a fantastic melody that if you told me it was composed I’d believe it. Incredible what this band can do sometimes.

The jam out of Ladies is short and nothing special. There’s a final jam in I-Man that is a type 1 jam leading into the ending. The Home Again encore actually has some really cool stuff going on. Magner gets into a bunch of noisy synth tones that are overlaid atop the rest of the band, and it’s clear he’s just kind of going all out for the last jam of the tour. The rest of the band play a fairly straightforward “rock” jam, but Magner’s stuff takes this to the next level for me, and rounds out an absolutely ridiculous show.

Highlights: Uber Glue, Morph**, 42**, Spacebird (1), Buddha (Intro, 1*), Cyclone, I-Man (4**), Home Again*

You would think that after such a monumental show the night before alongside the 8 hour drive from Denver to Lawrence that the boys might take a "night off" but hell no. In fact this show is phenomenal! The 1st is quite good especially the 42 jam and Spacebird~>MoRPh.

but the 2nd set!? fn' crazy good...like Twisted Sister 1982 good. Buddha jam and then the connection to a better than average Cyclone is the shit. Then it comes, I-Man! with the hard rock intro and bass bombs hinting towards good things to come. One of the best I-Man's to be sure. It's technofied 2.0 style and for around 20 miutes you get it all from every member. The way Barber's patience makes his input all the more poignant. You can see in your mind's eye a thousand people's heads jammin' up and down during those "up and at 'em" peaks. Very tasty and patient....there's the word of the set in a way; patience. EVERYONE in the band knows they will eventually 100% arrive so why not stop and smell the roses. Lovin' the decision to invert The Ladies here, it fits like a glove. Mags is the MVP here.

What a west coast tour and what a way to end it!! In Kansas.

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