April 25, 2009

The segment of ""S & M ~> The Great Abyss ~> I-Man ~> Basis"" is one I play often and used to use it a lot as filler in the trading days. Yet it's pretty underrated, deemed as good but average. That's a sign that we indeed create are own realities because that quattro kicks ass. It may not be like a Feb. 15 'I-Man' or the awesome 'S & M' from Starscape June 6th but you shall indeed be very satisfied. It must be said that it's more of an American Bandstand edm dance party than a guitar-filled rocketship but variety is the spice melange of life, eh? Although, Great Abyss has a nice melodic straightforward solo by Barberino that's pretty cool sliding into I-Man, then continuing for a little while because Basis explodes with energy as the GMAYFM outro creeps in. Magner & Barber's lysergic approach to I-Man is great. Some weird patterns develop in their contributions...beautiful. At 5 minutes in they lay down a cool percussive jam with tasty fills by Barber.

The 1st set has a pretty cool jam from Basis into Morph and the first HAB has a terrific jam towards the end. Not a bad 1st set but in a year of magic left, right and center...this is a Tuesday show. 'Caves' is the middle eastern MONSTER of the set. Why? It starts in a choppy, struggling 1st gear and heading towards safety and averageness. No way. Barber will not let normalcy reside here and now! He gets in the batter's box, shifts his package, whistles through his teeth and spits....then goes off into a top 2 most delightful jams and guitar prowess in "Caves" history! Twisting and turning into a sideways peak and slowly back down for a hand-off to 'HAB.' Best jam of the night. MVP

At the risk of not communicating correctly, this evening is a "softer" more electronic and dancy show. Untzy and tons of kick drum ~> high hat (and repeat) 2007 ish.

April '09...We're not worthy....James Worthy.

peace.

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

The opening jam in Morph does nothing for me at all. I felt the same about Basis back into Morph. The jam in Caves is initially very boring. It almost feels at one point like Barber is trying to play the guitar riff from “Play That Funky Music,” but never commits, or maybe it’s just a coincidence. Eventually, the band shifts uptempo into a four-on-the-floor jam, and this gets much more interesting. Brownstein comes in with a VI-VII-I progression, and a lot of Barber’s phrasing and note choice in this section is incredible. HAB is mostly filler, but near the end of this they get into a nice Blissco jam. I enjoyed this section even if it was a little corny. After they switch to the Gangster track, the band enters a minor key jam. Around the 1:30 mark, Magner has a sample that gets used, with a scientist or something saying some stuff that I couldn’t make out. This minor key section is fine, but doesn’t blow my hair back. There is a very, very short jam out of Gangster into the ending of HAB.

The Strobelights jam begins with a lot of filler. Around the 8-minute mark, this gets much more interesting as Brownstein adds a great progression. Barber’s guitar work from here on is fantastic. While I really enjoyed this theme, the good part really only lasts 2-3 minutes or so before they begin an Abyss intro jam. The Abyss jam begins with a dark, dancy theme, and Brownstein plays the Solstice bassline for a bit before the band moves on to a new theme at the 11:00 mark. This is very clearly a lead-in to I-Man. At the 11:40 mark, Magner plays the melody to Evolve, more than a decade before the song was made. This is really just the melodic progression, as the actual syncopation isn’t quite the same, but still, very cool coincidence. Short first jam in I-Man. Second jam begins with Brownstein on MIDI keyboard immediately. Magner plays the 2/15 I-Man arp, and Barber plays the guitar effect where his guitar sounds like it becomes elastic or something. Not even sure how to describe this. It’s interesting, though not necessarily in a fully redeeming way to me. This is a bit of a shame, because other than Barber’s “noise,” I thought this jam was absolutely ridiculous, and 100% dance party central. He finally starts playing actual notes at 5:40 again, but unfortunately he doesn’t get all that focused. The jam ends around the 8-minute mark. This had so much potential if not for Barber. I still think it’s very cool, but could have been incredible. Third I-Man jam is fine, but not my cup of tea. The first Memphis jam is alright, but this is no standout among other “hip-hop” Memphis first jams of the era. The second jam begins with a really cool groove from Barber and a spacey soundscape from Magner. This almost sounds like it would be a Rivers jam, and honestly that would have been a ridiculously cool segue. The shift uptempo into Cyclone is really solid, although the segue into Cyclone is a lot “smoother” than usual, and there’s no real build here. The Cyclone jam begins with a great theme from the band, but this is relatively short-lived, and the remainder of the Cyclone track (the lead-in to I-Man) is directionless and, at times, just bad. I thought about noting this as a highlight for the first few minutes of Cyclone, but just couldn’t bring myself to do it. The final jam in I-Man begins with an almost lullaby-like theme from Barber, and the band starts to stretch its legs a little bit rather than the straightforward type 1 ending jam that was more common around this time. This is very dreamy, and I’m a bit disappointed that they decide to tack on The City vocals in this jam for no reason. The jam had a lot of potential before that, and while I do think this is noteworthy regardless, lost a little bit of what I liked because of the vocals. Oh well. They at least finish this strong. The Shelby encore is way too short and basically just an ending jam. Barber at least sounds great here.

Highlights: Caves, HAB, Strobelights, Abyss, I-Man (2*), Memphis (2*), I-Man (4)