February 28, 2009

Anyone remember Adam D. from Break Science during the opening set falling off his kit ? He was either blasted or sick with a flu or I don't know. It was during "One Day" I was on stage right and it was kinda, uhm...alarming!? He came back 5 minutes later. ~~ Following Uber glue, the ''Astronaut ~> Cyclone ~> Basis For A Day ~> Abraxas ~> Astronaut'' is top notch. Barber's tone, patience and detail tonight is present in full force. A very strong Barber night. Love me a ''Shelby ~> City ~>'' opener in set 2 as well as the split Basis.

It's an absolute truth that this one of Barber's strongest shows from winter/spring. He is present, doing something constructive in every song without over doing it. I love minimal Barberino as he heads to the peaks.

S1: 8.15 / 10 S2: 8.00 / 10 e: 7.25

“Psychedelics are not just about psychotherapy. They’re about intellectual and artistic development.”—Dr. Thomas Roberts

Aloha!

Uber glue to begin the show has no jam. Astronaut begins with a 4-5 minute long SITA jam, and this is very very pretty, even though it never gets outside of the type one box. The second jam in Astronaut begins with an uptempo pace that’s obviously not headed toward the ending of Astronaut from the get-go. Barber is mostly just treading water here while Magner develops a neat background melody. For the first couple of minutes this is really just foundation laying. At 12:07, Magner has this cool odyssean melody that I like a lot, but nobody else seems bothered to do anything differently than they’re already doing. At the 13:00 mark Magner hops onto another very cool melody in hopes that the band will change up a bit, and this time they do. This 90 seconds or so is very cool and has a very interesting sound with the interplay between Magner and Barber. At the 14:43 mark, Brownstein forces a key change and Allen ditches the snare drum. So begins the build into Cyclone. The first couple minutes of this build are really fantastic, atmospheric trance with some soaring guitar from Barber. The rest of this is really just a gigantic peak, and while the peak is really well-done, I felt like they had a chance to do something really great with the theme before that. Oh well, still a fantastic jam. The jam out of Cyclone begins with an absolutely awesome dance groove. Barber has this great lick that is simple, but fits in the pocket so nicely. When Brownstein and Magner both change up their parts at the 7:50 mark, this is ridiculously cool. Allen follows suit by cutting the snare and dropping a much heavier kick at the 8:15 and 8:26 marks. This section is wonderful, and I really wish they’d have carried this further, but Brownstein switches this to major key at 8:53, and the band tries to figure out how to get to the middle of Basis. Initially, this is lovely, especially Barber’s Blissco guitar work. However, they seem to realize this won’t help at bridging the gap into Basis’s middle, and at 10:07 they try this repeating, dissonant thing, but that doesn’t work. They switch back to major key but find that doesn’t really work either, and eventually they sort of just give up, dissolve to nothing, then start playing the middle of Basis. Great stuff before this with a painfully mediocre transition.

Basis begins with a highly digital jam. Magner has arps galore and Allen is utilizing lots of e-drums. While I never felt like they got to the next level, this is very solid throughout. The jam in Abraxas begins with a ridiculously cool theme. Magner is on his “rolling” arp, and Barber has a great, minimal guitar riff that he locks into right away. This is very, very short-lived. From 5:13 to 5:53 they have this awesome cyberpunk-driving-late-at-night theme. Unfortunately, they ditch this for a more syncopated jam. At 8:30, Brownstein adds a second chord to this, and shortly thereafter he heavily teases a Buddha ending jam. They tease this heavily before Brownstein abruptly switches back toward the Astronaut ending. Barber’s soaring guitar is a highlight here, and this is unique play for him – less rapid fire, more soaring and atmospheric in the peak. Very cool stuff. The Buddha jam is similar to the Basis and Abraxas jams in that it’s really solid, but feels like they had a lot of potential that was left on the table. Magner’s play in Digital Buddha is really solid, and the interplay he has going on with Barber is really cool. The groove Marc and Allen find together is a rock-solid pocket for the two leads to play around before they hit on the ending theme.

Shelby is very paint-by-numbers, although I swear at one point Brownstein is playing the bassline for Pimp Blue Rikki – around the 7:15 mark. This jam is not bad by any means, but just never really hooked me. The segue into The City is very, very nice. Sublime. The jam out of The City is basically just one long Shelby peak. I wouldn’t normally note this as a peak, but this is extremely well-done, and Barber in particular is absolutely on fire. This is basically a perfect Shelby peak for me. Waves into Memphis is just a drop – no jam at all. Lame. The first Memphis jam is fine. This is not quite the digital e-drum fest that it often was around this time period, but Magner busts out one of my favorite arp patches and also the pan flute at the same time, which is a neat juxtaposition. This develops into a solid first jam. Not really breaking a lot of new ground here, but overall solid, well-played by everybody, and develops into a nice peak. The second jam is dance party central. This begins with the band sort of feeling out the outro of Memphis, and at 9:20, Allen drops the four-on-the-floor beat. Following this shift, they still are sort of feeling out what they want to do here, and Allen tries a couple different beats while the rest of the band finds their footing. It feels like around the 10:00 mark the band wants to head into major key territory, presumably for an earlier shift toward Run Like Hell. Instead, following a snare build at 10:30, Barber hints at going back into a minor key, and the rest of the band brilliantly follows suit. The descending riff that Barber develops as the centerpiece for this theme is ridiculously catchy, simple, and just a perfect example of Barber being Barber in 2009. The remainder of the Memphis track makes it almost impossible for you to sit still while listening.

First RLH jam is straightforward and short. The second jam has a lot of what I would call filler up until the end of the RLH track. As the Gangster track begins, and the band builds towards the drop into Gangster, they develop a solid theme. I’ve seen this get lauded a lot, and while I enjoyed it, I never felt like this really got out of first gear for me. A solid build/peak into gangster, but not a whole lot beyond that in my opinion. The Gangster jam is all right. Starts out with a lot of potential but never is actualized. Neither of the AC2B jams do a whole lot for me. The second is definitely the better of the two given its light and airy nature, but other than that not a whole lot appealing to me.

Highlights: Astronaut (2*), Cyclone*, Basis, Abraxas, The City, Memphis (1, 2**)

Tbh this one of those shows where I can say it was probably the best that I’ve seen personally. I remember barber was just on and having a great time with the band.

Opening with Uber glue which was new at the time. People loved it and a great show starter. Then astronaut really started it off. You knew it was gonna be a good night. They went into cyclone in a different key than traditionally. Continuing into basis that was unfinished from the night before. From there Dropping into an inverted abraxas that gives you the feels cuz you knew it was an on night. Finished astronaut properly. Then all of a sudden the drop a stand alone Buddha. Holy Hell!! What’s next ?!?

Set 2 started with Shelby > the city > Rose which was a sequence they did a lot that year but who cares cuz it’s awesome and barber shreds.

Next segment ~> Here is where it gets real interesting: starts with an ATW beginning which was real short then bam! Right into MEMPHIS which included a sick first jam. They kept it going by trailing off into RLH. By this time the band really impressed me how dialed in they were consistently. No down point in this show. All of a sudden the start to finish basis.

The encore was give me all your fuckin money and just when we think it’s Over they keep going. Final encore was stand alone AC2B. Crowd was blown away!