Vassillios begins with a solid dance groove, and Magner is using the big "industrial" hits, or however you want to describe those. Around the 7:15 mark, Magner has a very cool hook that he layers on top of Brownstein's bassline, and the band is really patient in growing this theme. This turns into a really solid jam around the 12:00 mark, where the entire band is locked in. Marc eventually switches to the MIDI keyboard, and Barber has some great leads later on in the jam. The Rock Candy features Magner using a harder lead and while I enjoyed this jam, it felt like they only had a few minutes before they hit RC ending. Grass is Green begins with another solid dance jam, and Magner is using some arps for textural effects. Barber has some nice minimalist guitar riffs, but this felt like it never really got out of first gear. Ultimately they change themes and make an obvious switch into Abraxas. This was fine, I guess. The Abraxas jam is also just fine. Solid first set, but.

Second set begins with KITNO, jamless. Buddha is next, and man this is a fun jam. The first several minutes have a driving trance beat with lots of e-drums, Brownstein with a simple bassline, Magner with arps galore, and Barber with a fantastic array of great minimalist riffs. Barber's riffs here are simple but absolutely fantastic. This initial section of the jam is enough to make me listen multiple times, but they enter a second stage of the jam around the 9:30 mark that is very cool in its own right. At 12:30, Barber has this fantastic riff that sounds a little Muse-influenced. This section of the jam is a really cool build with an organic peak that's not quite as "play-as-fast-as-you-can" but more the band just keeps playing the theme in different ways as they go up and up. Great stuff. Astronaut begins with a straightforward SITA jam. At the 6:30 mark or so, Brownstein halts the two-chord progression and they venture into type 2 territory. The band begins a new theme, which is markedly darker and more electronic. Magner uses a lot of his clicky arp sound, and at the 13:11 mark, everybody but Barber and Magner cuts out. They have this incredible interplay for a 16-bar break before Allen and Marc join back in. The rest of this is absolutely phenomenal, as is the build to the Crickets peak. Barber is on fire throughout this, and it feels like he can't play a single wrong note. He has some awesome bends and riffs during the peak, and this amounts to probably my favorite Crickets peak of 2009. Incredible.

It is impossible to overstate how good the Crickets jam is. Immediately, Brownstein has a very cool MIDI bass riff, and by the 6:30 mark, Barber has already come up with a brilliant lead riff. Magner is mostly playing textural arps in this early portion of the jam. Around the 7:08 mark, Barber plays a two-note riff that feels like he can anticipate just how incredible and patient this jam will become. Brownstein and Barber both become a little more involved during this little break, and after a beat Barber comes back in with some more leads playing off his original concept. Magner adds in more fantastic textural stuff, and after 16 bars Barber comes back to this two-note “waiting” riff, so that now Allen can get a little bit more involved. At 8:20, Barber returns to his main lead riff, and now Magner has a much deeper array of psychedelic effects that craft the backdrop for the jam. At 9:03, an important thing in the jam happens, which is that Allen’s drumbeat becomes markedly more forceful. This leads Barber to a new “waiting” riff at 9:17. Again, this gives the rest of the band a chance to expand around him while he steps back for a moment, and expand they do. Magner’s science fiction noises here are so awesome, and I can’t recall him ever using these big, haunting metallic sounds ever before (or since). Even if they just ended the jam here, this is an all-time great version. Crazily enough, the best part of the jam hasn’t even happened yet. At 10:45, Barber crafts one of my all-time favorite riffs, and seemingly does so just on a whim. In an unusual turn for the band, the progression they eventually wind up on is one that Barber calls to with his riff here. Normally, this is the kind of thing Brownstein would quarterback, but here it’s Barber doing the shot calling. The riff Barber crafts at 10:45 is four bars in E, two bars in C, then a return to E for measures 7 and 8. You can hear the first time through that Brownstein sits on the E for the entire 8-bar motif. The second time through, Brownstein catches on to what’s going on, and while he doesn’t hit the C in measure 5 like Barber does, by measure 6 Brownstein is fully on board, along with the return to E. Now he understands the motif and he’s absolutely locked in, and continues this theme throughout the rest of the jam. With him and Barber locked in, Magner messes around in the upper registers with some clicky arp sounds. By 12:12, Barber is satisfied that Brownstein has the foundation down, and decides to head out to open water. He starts playing around with other riffs, and each one is somehow more perfect than the last. At 12:45, Magner adds in the angel choir effect, to make this even more epic than it’s already become. I should also note at this point that Barber’s tone is so incredibly perfect for this jam. The next major milestone occurs at 13:30 when Barber adds in the foundations for what becomes a central part of this final section of the jam. Namely, he eventually gets to a point where the last two-bars of his motif involve two separate ascending four-note patterns. As he builds out this theme, Magner starts playing a great eighth-note harmony that builds the tension even further. The band does a big build near the 15-minute mark, with Barber just sort of playing noise as the band builds up around him. This build is fantastic, and the resolve is to Barber playing yet another variation of the grouping of leads that he’s come up with. The next minute or so is more vamping and tension building, then around 17:05 Barber comes back in with a cleaner, lead tone and plays a few soaring riffs before the band drops back into Crickets. What an incredible ride.

The second Crickets jam begins with a fairly straightforward dance jam. Around the 24-minute mark, they shift keys in a somewhat belabored way. The next few minutes they sort of feel out where they're headed. Around the 27:30 mark, the band shifts to half-time for a bit. Barber's tone here is perfect, but the jam itself is just not really doing it for me thus far. However, this little section features some fantastic lead lines from Magner. This has a very Floydian vibe to it, especially Magner's lead riffs. Barber's little accent notes here are perfect, and they manage to salvage this jam despite the previous 7-8 minutes being largely forgettable. I thought this jam could have been extended a bit more, but they instead shift uptempo for the return to SITA. Solid anyway. The Astronaut ending jam is not bad, but this doesn't stick out too much to me. There are a lot of individual elements here that I really enjoyed, but ultimately just felt like they never hit that next level, especially after the rest of this absolutely insane set. Still, this is not bad by any means. Tamarin Alley is jamless in the encore, and the Morph jam is forgettable enough that it might as well be jamless. Short and to the point. But my god, what a show.

Highlights: Vassillios*, Rock Candy, Buddha**, Astronaut (1**), Crickets (1**, 2)

April 20, 2009

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