April 18, 2009

Incredible show. Sure, the 3rd set flags a little in comparison to the first two but not in a major way. While the chemistry of the band as a whole is airtight, this is particularly Barber's night. Lots of fiery guitar work, but seldom overplayed.

The standalone 42 here made me think a lot of On the Corner-era Miles Davis, given that it's a thick, rhythmic stew. TVM>Orch is the stuff dreams are made of. This Orch Theme is a Hall of Famer as far as I am concerned. As Treemaculate noted, the jam hovers in Type 1.5 territory largely, but we are all the better for it. Magner wrings so much drama out of those orch patches. This would have caused Emerson, Lake and Palmer to immediately die of an embolism if they heard this in the '70s. The landing into Sven couldn't be smoother, either.

Set 2 is also great, but probably would've hit way harder in person. Regardless, both segments are top notch. Shelby and The City play extremely well together, with a beautiful emotional peak. But the real star here is that HAB>Abyss>HAB, which is classic 2009 duntzgeon with a nonetheless arresting and beautiful coda.

The only reason Set 3 pales in comparison is that it's safe. More soloing rather than jamming. Another situation where I don't think I would've cared whatsoever about the lack of jamming if IWT. It's still very well executed, and the safeness is probably what stops it from sounding tired as a lot of 3rd sets tend to be.

If this isn't a straight up 5 star, you'd barely have to round to get there. It's an oversized sampler of everything this band does well. They've gone deeper, but this show is more about breadth I'd say.

~ 'Royal pepper, tidal wave. Restless fellow, yearning rave.' ~ One Of The Greatest Lines To Get The Juices Flowing And The Body Nimble! A Damn Fine Expression To Start Off A Classic E-Facto 3 Setter

<{ Ultimate 42 Openers, 2 Just About Perfect Sets And Third That's Just As Good But Just More About Silky Psychedelic Smoothness.... }>

Anyone else love to go back to this monster 1st set every once in a while when they're in a great mood?  Killer carpet shredding 1st  and 2nd sets plus a nice Ladies jam and Gangster in the bottom of the third.
The opening 42 crushes! Yes, better than June 6 :) One of my 2.0 favs.
TVM ~> Orch ~> Sven is an elite triple. Pretty much a perfect segment, especially that sick Orch!

Set 2...and more of the same. The meat of [Shelby Rose ~> The City ~> Shelby Rose] &
[Hot Air Balloon ~> The Great Abyss ~> Hot Air Balloon]

The City is beautiful and a perfect companion to a very good 'Shelby' on each side. This whole night is a masterclass in Barberisms but this Shelby has Brownie being up front and psychedelic as a mf.
Mad props to the boys for pouring it all out during this exciting 'HAB' This Hot Air trio of 45 minutes has incredible tag play with Barber and Mr. Mags as usual. These 2 guys sure know each other's strengths. Good ending for all they put out in the previous 2 1/2 hours.

Set 1: 9.25 /10
Set 2: 9.20/10
Set 3: 8.45/10


Magner: 
Bermuda Triangle Award:  For smoothly entering a jam with the possibility of never coming out.

Barber: The Laundromat Award: For biggest collection of panties on the bus.

Brownie: The Golden Larynx Award: Coolest Voice In Rock&Roll.

Gingerbot:  Best 365 Days of the Year Costume Award:  For making us believe he's human.

it's the nature of the Biscuits. The best band ever. 

Q: What was the greatest sunset you’ve ever seen?

A: If you live into your seventies, you could experience nearly 30,000 days and 30,000 sunsets. If you’re an ASTRONAUT, you see 16 sunsets every day.

The version of 42 that opens the show is an absolute monster. Almost immediately the band conjures a digital soundscape of purely psychedelic dance music. Magner has great usage of some patches that are a little lower in the register than he normally plays, and it works really, really well. This is just dance party central, duntzgeon jamming without any real melodic play of any kind. There are a few "riffs" here and there, but it's mostly the band just locked in, playing digital, electronic stuff. So, so good. They also transition this really well back into major key and the peak of 42. Incredible version. First TVM jam is straightforward. TVM 2 is generic funk until about the 17:12 mark, where Magner brings out this eerie synth/organ sound that immediately connotes a haunted, ominous feeling. This section is fantastic and unsettling. As the band shifts into the Orch track, this remains dark and unsettling, though shifts uptempo. Magner at one point has a chord progression very similar to “Golden Brown” by the Stranglers, but I think this is more coincidence than anything. In any event, this is phenomenal. The jam in Orch Theme begins with a straightforward outro jam, still well within the box. They eventually get off this theme and just vamp for a bit. Magner uses a hard sync lead, which fits this jam perfectly. This is basically a type 1 jam for several minutes, but I still enjoyed it. By the 13-minute mark, they've gotten into type 2 territory. Following this, Magner gets back on the "Orch" patch (trumpet/string/bell hit), but the band veers away from Orch and into a DNB jam to head to Svenghali. I thought this whole jam was fantastic, although the first several minutes absolutely feel like they're going to eventually head back to the Orch second section. The segue into Svenghali is really smooth, with Magner using the big trumpet sound to really hit the chord progression into Sven hard. Awesome stuff. The Svenghali jam is pretty solid, at least as far as DNB jams go. Magner continues to use the Orch Theme patch, mostly to good effect. There is some interesting thematic work here, primarily from Magner, upon which the band builds, and a huge, huge peak. 

Mirrors is jamless once again. The Shelby jam has a solid DNB theme throughout, before dropping to half-time around the 9-minute mark for the shift into The City. This version of The City has Marc explain to the crowd that they are going to record the crowd doing the "whoas" in the song, for the purpose of including them on the album. I’m 99% sure that the crowd was not included on the album. The HAB jam immediately begins with a dark, minor key theme that is obviously headed to Abyss for a long time. The early stages of this are very digital and cool, then there are 5-6 minutes of utter monotony, with a 2-3 minute intro jam for Abyss. I noted this as a highlight, although really the part that I enjoyed only lasted 4-5 minutes. The jam back into Hot Air Balloon is wholly forgettable.

Fiddler is jamless and Rivers just has the usual short jam. The Ladies/Gangster segment features two mediocre jams (particularly the second) and Tunnel has a short jam that is similarly mediocre. The Triumph jam is marginally better. This sounded like a SITA jam for a bit before going into 7-11. Still not amazing but better. Encore is jamless. This third set was a real disappointment after the awesomeness of sets 1 and 2.

Highlights: 42**, TVM (2**), Orch*, Svenghali, Shelby, City*, HAB

This Orch is 1 of the best I’ve heard them play, just an amazing sonic assault ->Svengali which is an excellent exclamation point. Fierce!