February 26, 2009

I got to know the guys owning / running the old Higher Ground and as they were REALLY peaking in the '95 to '99 era I asked what would it take to purchase a YEARLY pass for all "non-specialized private concerts". We crunched some numbers and I did it for 4 years. Yes, expensive. Don't tell Trey's brother-in-law :)

If you guys ever find yourselves living pretty near a popular, smaller, type concert bar / hall etc... and you go often it doesn't hurt to set up a meeting with the owner or manager to see if it's feasible....you'd be surprise. If your in a $$ situation that can do that.

Like the following night, what can I say? It is all highlight, magical Biscuits. The only so-so-ers would be 'Tamarin' & 'm80' lol. Man, I'll take that any 'ole night.

I still have a bunch of winter 2009 tour shirts I made. A happy hippy robot skiing with the band on the chairlift looking bewildered. Love that shirt. There were 5 : A) east coast pt.1 B) MIDWEST C) South D) east coast pt.2 and E) mid-Atlantic Anyone have one or have seen them?

I won't try to pimp out these shirts or sell here because that's a little cheap to do in a review section but anyhoo if you wanna chat. skyscoutATliveDOTca

''Everything she did was done in vain. Couldn't get a wire tap in the drain.''

LASTLY, you will notice with 100% certainty that during the entire show, Jon is a non-stop machine of the highest technical order and taste. It did not matter what formation the defense was in for Barber was touchdowns all day! (don't tell anyone but anyone of these 2 VT shows is better that Sept 24th show at the Cannery. Country mile.

{{the strain we grew during these days}}
[AK47] this was everywhere (in varying quality) in eastern Can and all over the States. Tastes like pepper and skunk.
You could tell the AK by it's powerful smell that states "someone near this aroma is on a one-way trip to Andromeda, treat him/her softly.
I had 8 plants which the seeds came from Van Island, rumored to be alive since the 70's.
I yielded no less than 430 grams up to near 500 but not quite [129 OZ].
I you see this strain (you will). You will not be disappointed in any way. 18-20% thc is palenty! Woke up in a full 69.

Aloha

Dribble begins the show with a fairly straightforward first jam, with some nice melodic work from Magner. This never really builds to much, but I enjoyed it. The jam out of Lunar Pursuit begins with Barber vamping and Allen using a plethora of e-drums. While I would normally love this kind of jam, this particular version just feels way, way too busy. They eventually switch up to a breakbeat jam, and while they’re clearly communicating well, what they’re communicating about is just plain boring to me. The last several minutes of this they get into a nice little two-chord progression, primarily led by a solid theme from Magner. I thought these 4-5 minutes were very good, though when you consider that this whole jam is nearly 20 minutes, it’s a little less impressive. Still, I noted this as a highlight. The jam out of Shem-Rah has an absolutely fantastic dance groove from the very beginning. I love Allen’s choice of e-drums here, and Brownstein is sitting mostly on the and of each beat for the first few minutes of this jam. Barber is sort of stuck in minimalist riff mode, which I normally don’t mind all that much, but it felt like the chance was there for him to step into the spotlight a little bit and he just never did. Instead, at the 12-minute mark they switch into major key territory for the switch to Voices. The remainder of this jam is Blissco jamming, with fantastic stuff from both Magner and Barber. Really beautiful stuff, and I absolutely loved the transition even if I could see it coming a mile away. Voices features a rare middle jam, coming out of the major key section. Initially, the sounds like they could just be headed for the ending of Voices, but then they stretch this out into a full on jam. Not only that, the jam itself is fantastic. Brownstein begins this with a fairly simple three chord ascending progression, but the jam is really taken to the next level by Magner. Barbers guitar play here is mostly subdued for the majority of the jam, with Magner are taking more of the leads. The leads Magner plays are really joyful, uplifting stuff. This whole section is pure Blissco. As they get closer to the return to Voices, Barber takes more of the lead, for a triumphant return to the song. Even though this was only three minutes or so, I loved every second of it.

M80 is jamless to begin the second set, and it's followed by two forgettable jams in Hope and Crickets. The Hope jam very quickly turns into an obvious Crickets peak, and the same as essentially true of the Crickets jam, which turns into an obvious Story peak/ending. Story begins with the usual funk/house jam, but around the 13-minute mark, Brownstein throws in a great 3-chord progression and the band builds around this, with the exception of Barber who plays a nice little riff over and over. This changes at 14:36 when Brownstein switches up his riff and this becomes a great all-out dance assault. The next few minutes are very cool, and have an absolutely hypnotic dance groove to them. The band builds, and then drops into the intro of Spacebird, but decides to pull back and jam for a bit longer. The remainder of this jam just doesn’t do a whole lot for me, and Barber’s “bluesy” riffing isn’t for me. The build and peak before the real drop into Spacebird is well played by all. Spacebird begins with Marc immediately switching to MIDI keyboard. There were some interesting parts of this jam, but for the most part I found they were short-lived before the switch to I-Man. I-Man first jam begins with Magner playing a plucky 1/16th note synth. This sounds like it has potential, but they really pull back a lot and this turns into a pretty standard I-Man type 1 jam. Shame. The second jam has some really fantastic guitar work from Barber, and at the 11-minute mark, Magner jumps in with some great counterpoint lead melodies. This brief jam is really solid, though I wish it lasted longer, as this only really goes on for 4 minutes or so. The third jam is a pretty straightforward type 1 jam, although notably Magner uses the 2/15 I-Man arp here, which is always fun. Onamae Wa has a rare jam in it, and while this is only a few minutes long, this is probably the best (or in the conversation for the best) Onamea Wa of all-time. Barber has some incredible guitar work, and DNB work from Allen is fantastic. Overall, this is really interesting and features a fantastic build into the ending of Onamae Wa.

Highlights: Dribble (1), Lunar, Shem-Rah**, Voices**, Story, I-Man (2), Onamae Wa**