February 27, 2009

{{ Stowe/Killington in the day, Biscuits at night }}

Nothing like a two day stay in my favorite east coast town. The 26th was my ex-wife's 100th show and so we went full on this run. Janet Planet would of liked me writing this about her....sniff. Fucking smack. I miss you

So I rate these 2 VT shows right behind the Denver 13th / 14th run in Feb. as best 1 - 2 punch shows.

Of all the times dancing and partying with ''Family'' in Burlington, I would say, musically, this 2nd set to be the most inspirational and downright orgasmic of 99% of the sets I saw at both HGs. The '98 to '01 Higher Ground period was incredible and exciting, happy. Besides the mandatory brain-challenged (ingest anything that comes into my possession dorks) making sure the possibility of scene ending relationships with band and venue (thanks you momos, go take your fake MDMA, Sass,DXM and N2O and go fuck up another scene...ahh, to vent is to heal :)

I am really biased as I have seen them there (old and new HG) more than any venue or band(18 times) although because of the 9 day runs, I saw the Dead at MSG 21 times from 1990 to 1994. Point? 2 and a half hours away from my old east coast home in Ottawa.

They took so many "chances" and "adventures" during these 2 nights that a fan can only count him or herself very fortunate to have witnessed these shows. They seem to slay it on the regular when playing Burlington since 1996. Of course New England's Bisco World is large indeed without too much talking at shows and with less rowdies(subjective as hell). Nothing wrong with having a few pops with your friends but would it be OK if you wouldn't vomit on my sockless Tevas!?? .... 'preesh.

NOTE: sounds lazy but EVERYTHING on the 27th is a highlight except for the set enders 'Reactor which is just the crescendo ending and the encore Morph which is kind of short but sweet. I like the " I Can See Clearly Now " jam in Papercut, it's very well placed, and soloed beautifully by Barber.

On this night Papercut , Abyss Jam out, [><]Crystal!, Very Moon, Vassillios(high level!), Waves middle jam into an awesome middle/end jam Crix. My Sweet Lord! I believe they've played Mr. Don every year at HG...(thinking cap goes on, once again.....silence)

What a Show!

ratings: set 1: 8.90 / 10 ; set 2: 9.75 / 10

Now, Make Like a Horse-Cock & Hit The Road.

Meditation begins the show with a jam, and while this only lasts a couple of minutes, I didn’t hate it. Not anything noteworthy, but at least flows nicely into Papercut. The Papercut jam begins with some filler, with the band feeling out where they’re headed. Around the 9:13 mark, the band shifts out of the filler, minor key section into a faster paced, uplifting major key section. Then at 9:28, Barber basically plays “I Can See Clearly Now the Rain is Gone,” and the rest of the band follows suit with this beautiful, gorgeous, Blissco jam. They play around with this theme for basically the rest of the Papercut track, and this is absolutely delightful. As the track changes to Basis, the band shifts noticeably darker, and Barber’s soaring guitar rises above the rest of the band, with Magner sort of dancing in and around Barber’s playing. At 1:20, the band has a full-on evil death march sound going, and Allen’s variation in drumbeats here is absolutely fantastic. The band builds an enormous peak, and around the 4:00 mark, they are in that perfect spot where it feels like a runaway freight train that is just barely clinging to the tracks before careening off and killing everybody. Allen and Barber are both the absolute stars of this jam, though if I had to pick one, it’d be Barber, who utilizes his feedback in an awesome way during the peak, and his fingers are on fire. I really thought they’d drop into Basis at 5:21, but instead, they bring it up another level, and then do so again at the 5:37 mark – this time, complete with double-time drumming from Allen. This is absolutely, completely, totally, awesome. They jam out of Basis out of the middle “slap” section, and most of this was pretty forgettable for me. The last few minutes as they make their way toward Abyss are fine. Abyss begins with a solid dance groove that feels like it could quickly turn into something nice. However, around the 12-minute mark, the band gets stuck on this eighth-note repeater theme that does nothing for me. To their credit, when they get out of this, they transition into Crystal Ball in a really cool, very smooth way. There’s a fairly brief type 1 jam in Crystal Ball. Out of Crystal Ball, the band begins with a fairly straightforward jam, but quickly shifts uptempo into a dance groove. Almost immediately following the shift uptempo, Barber teases the middle section of KOTW which is neat. The next two minutes or so are mostly filler, with Magner doing some sort of “feeling out” playing. The melody Magner comes up with at 16:17 in the Crystal Ball track and carrying into the Reactor track is absolutely awesome, digital playing. Very cool stuff. The rest of the band sort of just hangs out while he does this, and while I agree with many that this is a great version of Crystal Ball, I feel like this cool section only lasts a minute or two before they shift into an obvious Reactor peak. Awesome, but a little too short for me to consider this an all-time great version as I know some do.

There is a brief intro jam in TVM. This is fine, but really just them sort of messing around for a bit before the song starts, not a full-on jam. The first TVM jam is a type 1 jam that leads into the peak. Meh. The second jam begins with a very jambandy jam that I couldn’t care less about. However, around the 15-minute mark they switch this up and get into a new section beginning at 14:50 that has this sort of airy, dreamy quality to it. Barber comes up with a great little lick that he plays the next minute or two while Magner and Brownstein fill in space around him. Then, he switches on some overdrive and at 16:50 he takes this soaring lead tone that is awesome. He sounds so, so, so good here, and even though this is a much “rockier” jam than I’d typically go crazy for, this is really cool. They begin building a peak around the 18-minute mark, and Barber’s play during the peak is fantastic as well. This whole jam is built on Barber’s back, and it’s wonderful. The jam out of Vassillios begins with a nice dance groove with some simple play from Magner and Barber in sort of vamping and feeling things out. At the 9-minute mark, they switch directions, and both Magner and Barber expand a little bit on what they were playing. At the 9:25 mark, Allen drops in some e-drums, and the jam is off and running. Magner immediately switches to a more digital sound, and Brownstein follows suit by switching to MIDI keyboard at the 10:02 mark. The next few minutes have a great electronic sound to them, with the band fully locked in to the duntzgeon sound. As the track switches to Above the Waves, the band shifts uptempo and gets a much “darker” sound as they start headed toward the peak. Barber’s play here is really solid. Above the Waves begins with a type 1 "Coronado swam like hell on fire" jam and they continue this for 3-4 minutes. Following this, they slowly branch out into an extended improv, which eventually turns highly digital. This features a lot of effects from Allen, and Magner on his square wave lead doing some very syncopated playing. While I am normally an enormous fan of the moments where they get more digital, this particular jam is just not all that interesting to me. It felt like a lot of filler, and like I was waiting for something to happen. The last few minutes of the Waves track they actually hit on a pretty decent theme, with Barber taking a more prominent lead. Magner is also doing this piano effect that gave me the impression they may be headed to Air Song. Instead they hit an inverted Crickets. Cool. The jam out of Crickets begins as the usual airy dance gym, but around the 4-minute mark, Allen switches to a half-time beat. Barber follows with this very simple guitar riff that is very effective, and at the 4:30 mark, Magner starts playing this ascending/descending riff. Brownstein follow suit by adding a second chord to his theme, and suddenly the band has a great thematic jam on its hands. Around the 6:30 mark, Barber hits the overdrive and takes a more prominent lead. This section is very, very cool. The rest of the Crickets track is equally good, with Magner doing his share of lead melodic work as well. Something great happens thereafter, which is that rather than force an awkward transition into Mr. Don, they sort of just let things fizzle out. From there they build up a Mr. Don intro. Some might call this a cop out, but I’d rather they do this than force something that doesn’t work. The Mr. Don intro lasts about three minutes before getting into the Fanfare for the Common Man. The jams in Mr. Don and the Morph encore are both mostly forgettable.

Highlights: Meditation, Papercut**, Crystal Ball*, TVM (2**), Waves, Crickets*