February 25, 2009

Rivers begins the show with the usual 2-3 minute long jam. This version is actually very cool, in spite of the fact that they stay firmly in type 1 territory the entire jam. There’s another short, 2-3 minute long jam in the middle of Rockafella. This features a lot of noodling from Barber and goes nowhere at all. The Caterpillar jam is fine, but nothing special. Near the 10-11 minute mark, Brownstein starts playing the ending for Caterpillar. I’m not sure if this was intended to be a fakeout of if the band called an audible, but it’s clear Marc and Magner are headed to Caterpillar ending, and then abruptly change course. The remainder of this jam leading to the ending of Confrontation is just okay. Confrontation begins with a fairly standard dance jam where the band vamps for a long time in on a single chord. Barber and Magner have a lot of interplay here, but none of it really does a whole lot for me. Around the 15-minute mark, Magner jumps on to his “rolling” arp patch, and the next couple of minutes are pretty solid. The drop into Plan B is a little awkward, but I applaud the effort to do a unique segue into a song that doesn’t usually have one. The jam in Plan B starts around the 6-minute mark with a four-on-the-floor beat, and almost right out of the gate, Magner and Barber have some solid communication, trading licks with the same melody. Brownstein switches on to the MIDI keyboard, and Magner switches to an evolving sine lead that rises above the monotonous drone of Barber’s single repeated note. Brownstein has some really great MIDI basslines here that are dark and ominous, and at the 8:15 mark, Allen starts throwing in a bunch of e-drums. This is dark, duntzgeon-y stuff, and extremely cool. The last minute or so of the Plan B track gets a little more straightforward and Brownstein switches back to his bass guitar thereafter, but the rest of this jam is extremely solid regardless, and Barber finds a fantastic pocket with the rest of the band. The rest of the build into Caterpillar is great, and Magner’s pad washes take this to the next level, as do his plucky, echo-y synths that are added in shortly after. Great stuff all-around to end the set.

Uber Glue is jamless to begin the second set. Robots 1st jam has Magner switching on to the Rhodes almost immediately and developing a great little two-chord progression, which he then carries over to the electronic strings patch. This whole section of the jam is very neat, and around the 9-minute mark, they switch dramatically to a major key jam. The melody Magner comes up with around 10:45 is so happy-go-lucky, carefree, and great. Barber joins in on the fun as Brownstein switches to MIDI keyboard, and while I enjoyed the minor key section, I actually like this portion a lot more. They shift uptempo and it feels for a second like they’re just going to ditch this neat little theme, but Magner brings it back in after they speed up. Very cool, and a solid transition into Helicopters. The first couple of minutes of the Helicopters jam have Magner using a very busy arp patch while he and the rest of the band hit the North American Scum chords in the fourth bar of each stanza. Barber’s play here is not all that interesting to me, and for whatever reason he’s really interested by what he’s playing. This gives way to an uptempo DNB jam, eventually leading to the end of Robots. This is a little unusual as the band never played the middle of Robots. Barber noodles around a tiny bit at the end of Robots before the band kicks in with 7-11. 7-11 is jammed out from the towel section, and while this initially sounds like it’ll be a quick one, Magner changes the tone of things at the 6-minute mark and they instead continue on out of the song. At the 7:45 mark, Magner plays the vocal melody for the chorus of On Time, which hadn’t yet been debuted. Interesting. Following this, they shift uptempo, and Magner jumps on a gated patch which is very cool and fits the vibe of the jam perfectly. As they hit the cyclone track, the band gradually shifts uptempo into a full-on dance groove. The initial portion of this is a little too “funky” for my tastes, but around the two-minute mark Barber manages to find a very cool pocket in the band just sort of rides this out for a bit. At 4:10, Brownstein starts playing the bassline for the ending of On Time, and at 4:40, Magner follows suit and also plays the ending to On Time. While this is a neat novelty, in the context of this jam I don’t find it all that remarkable. They basically riff on this theme, primarily Magner and Brownstein, until around the 7:09 mark, when Brownstein starts heading toward Cyclone. The next two minutes result in the band building an absolutely monstrous peak into Cyclone. I don’t care at all that this is all basically type one jamming, because it is so so awesome. Brownstein and Magner work together to craft a phenomenal base for Barber to just go crazy on the top end. Barber is straight up shredding at different points, and his play here is ridiculously clean. Special shout out to Barber at 8:50 when he has the chance to drop into Cyclone, but instead decides to start playing as fast as he possibly can for one more run through of the theme.

The Cyclone jam is a perfect example of the band’s patience. From the very start of the jam, Brownstein shifts keys to get the band on track for the Helicopters return. The band then vamps for a solid 1-2 minutes just sort of finding its footing. While I’d normally penalize this for water treading, in this case it seems clear they want to move toward something. Brownstein tests out a couple different chord progressions before settling on a fairly simple I-III-IV progression, and while this particular chord progression doesn’t necessarily move me, the band settles in around him. Magner also tests out a couple of ideas around the 13:30 mark, but decides they don’t quite work and gets off them rather quickly. Again, usually I’d penalize the directionless nature of this, but here’s it’s clear they’ve got a direction and are just sort of finding their way – very “1.0” style jamming, and Barber stays solid as a rock throughout this. Magner switches to take on the lead while Barber is content to play rhythm guitar for basically this entire jam. Around the 16:40 mark, Barber finally gets off the rhythm guitar and starts to step into the spotlight a little more alongside Magner. This coalesces into an absolutely fantastic build. This is a peak for sure, but not necessarily the same kind of huge OH-MY-GOD peak that preceded Cyclone. Around the 18-minute mark, they use this build as a plateau to head toward whatever is next. The next four minutes feel like a standard build into Helicopters, though around the 4-minute mark they have this sort of unusual sound featuring Magner on a heavily distorted, shrill lead. I didn’t love this little section, but I like the effort of trying something new sounding. The next few minutes Magner uses this less as a lead and more as a counterpoint to Barber, which I think works much better. The rest of this jam is a more straightforward lead-in back to Helicopters, with a great, Barber-led peak. Overall, a fantastic segment to cap a fantastic second set. The Mulberry’s encore is exactly what you’d expect it to be.

Highlights: Confrontation, Plan B**, Robots (1*), 7-11**, Cyclone**