March 05, 2009

If you're looking at 2009 and not sure where to dive in for an amazing 3 hour tour amidst all of this 2009 magic? After the monumental recommendations you'll get from others, do not forget to go here. ~~Virginia is for Huffers~~

{ You like the Kansas 'I-Man' from 02-15 or the one from 9-22 also interwoven with ''Orch Theme"? Well, wear your best shoes baby it's red panties night...}

There are no real weak points at the NorVa this evening. Every segment and section are tremendously strong and inspired. Even the 1st Mirrors is fairly strong. From a supreme opening 'Overture ~>' to the absolute top of the food chain segment of 'Nughuffer ~> The Great Abyss ~> Spacebirdmatingcall ~> Nughuffer'....this 50 minute chunk is some of the tighter playing as we finish up winter tour. There are no scraps in this scrapbook. Mags is incredible here having eerie musical conversations with Barber....psychedelifunk of the highest degree. The drop into the 'Abyss' is ridiculous in it's simple yet eloquent repeated funk groove while Mr.Mags plays in the garden and expresses lovely sweeps and a myriad of effects to great effect, you effectively see what I mean? AND! the magnifique 'Abyss' welcomes this perfect 'Spacebird' like a Doctor, this monumental approach starts at around 17 minutes into the tune. The 'Nuffer' reprise doesn't let up and call it a wash, no, it's done well. Such fan respect. ~~ set 1:: 9.5 / 10 ~~ After an impressive devirginization of 'Mirrors' we get another A+ hour and a half of primo Biscuits. After a short 'tVM' to get the juices flowing, things get real downright funky while Marc gives a little more umph to the lyrics, a little more emphasis...they are point blank killing it. What a Voices! almost as good as the Stubbs 9-19 or the classic 2009-04-04 as the year's best. It's a cruisin' in your car on a sunny day after you cashed your check version. The I-Man [part 1], sandwiched by a 'Crickets' jam(which half of it is still on the I-Man theme), this 'Crix jam" is all Marc Brownstein!! he goes off with purpose and technique...and then everyone joins in = superb, wish it was longer. This is not your typical structure but delivers good DnB, and boy oh boy they arrive at some goosebumpin' peaks!! As the I-Man continues, Allen doubles up on the snare bigger and BIGGER for a while, really juicin' up the energy which is ready to pop perfectly into Mork from ''Orch Theme'' which couldn't be more of a perfect placement. It stays in great mid-tempo flow but with a little extra mustard as they finish the night perfectly on the "I-Man" ~My G-D!~ encores: it's a pretty cool jam from a short but sweet ''Hope" into the 'Overture" reprise but standard, vanilla... ~~ set 2:: 9.45 / 10 ~~

"Stoke The Fires Of Paradise With Coals From Hell To Start"

Much Love....

( suggestion: 'The Treemaculate Files" a section dedicated to reviews he's made linked up to the specific date of each show he has input in; nicely put together in an easily accessible format in the "Resources" section . If the site needs help organizing it, I will be happy to do it as I am sick and off work for 6 months. I believe it would be a phenomenal almanac or reference guide. I believe many, many fans echo these sentiments. Yes, it's that good and the juice will be well worth the squeeze on this project)

peace.

The Overture jam to begin the show is mostly filler DNB, until the last few minutes where they drop to half-time for the switch to Caves. This section has a nice vibe that I enjoyed. The Nughuffer story is about the winter tour and the weed they smoked on that tour. Eh. The jam begins with a fairly straightforward type 1 jam that sounds like maybe it'll head immediately to the ending of Nughuffer, but eventually breaks out of this and into some solid stuff before Abyss.

The jam out of Abyss is an all-timer. The first few minutes have some interesting spacey sounds from Barber and Magner while Brownstein lays on the MIDI keyboard. Around the 18-minute mark, the band vamps around a simple melodic theme from Magner. The next minute or so is generally filler, though Brownstein eventually lands on an eighth-note walking bassline that he fleshes out for a bit. Allen has some really awesome drum work here, especially with the e-toms and the way they build an atmospheric effect. Just before the 20-minute mark, Barber and Magner start playing similar themes, and the next few minutes are some of my favorite stuff from all of 2009. When Magner breaks out the glassy synth sound around 20:30, there is this ethereal, dreamy quality to the otherwise straightforward dance groove, and this is buoyed by Barber's ascending guitar riff, which Brownstein follows. However, this is ultimately taken to the next level at 21:15 when Barber starts repeating the same two-note pattern. The entire band drops out except for Barber and Magner at 21:33, and this little break and the section that follows are absolutely sublime. Magner plays a gorgeous chord progression on the glassy synth over Barber's two-note pattern, and after Brownstein/Allen come back in, Barber varies up his theme and Magner plays around with a fantastic lead as the band heads into Spacebird. Absolute perfection and should be heard by all. If you're looking for a great example of full band improv, look no further. Before dropping into Spacebird, they build a phenomenal peak, with Barber and Magner's melodic play weaving in and out of one another. Awesome.

The jam out of Spacebird has the band jamming in 6/4 time, which is normally rather forced and uninteresting. However, in this case, they manage to turn this into a really cool theme, so much so that you barely notice the band is playing in 6/4 time. Barber has a great simplistic lead melody, and Magner is mostly resigned to an arpeggiator here, but this is very, very cool. They obviously get much darker and more dissonant as they return to Nughuffer, with a mostly-good peak to end the set.

The second set features the debut of mirrors. This song has historically gotten a lot of hate, and while I don’t think it’s the band's best, I also don’t think that it’s nearly as bad as many of the band's older tunes. This version is jamless. The first TVM jam is as type 1 as it gets. The second TVM jam at least has the band doing lots of great communication, even though I don’t necessarily care about what they’re communicating about. The Voices jam shifts into and uptempo dance jam right away, and while the second half of this is basically a long intro for I-Man, due to the great stuff from Magner and e-drums from Allen, I noted this as a highlight. There is a brief I-Man down between verses one and two that only lasts a couple minutes. The jam out and into Crickets is fine, forgettable. Same goes for the jam out of Crix. The jam out of I-Man middle begins with a fantastic Blissco theme. This only lasts a few minutes but it’s fantastic. After the theme, they shift darker and uptempo for the switch to Orch Theme. The rest of this is fine but the Blissco section is really great. The final jam back into I-Man from Orch basically shifts to a major key almost right away for the return to the ending of I-Man. Hope > Overture is about exactly what you'd expect, and not really for me.

Highlights: Overture, Nughuffer, Abyss**, Spacebird**, Voices, I-Man (3*)