May 30, 2009

This version of Rock Candy is very solid, but the jam is fairly short. This lasts a total of 4 minutes before shifting to Strobelights. While the jam is good, I’ve seen people call this a “best ever” version and that’s just not right. Solid, but too short. Strobelights begins with some filler dance jamming, and I didn’t think this was bad, but just a little too straightforward. There are two very short (1-2 minute) jams in I-Man to start between verses. The third jam is a little longer, five-ish minutes, but still not enough time to get much going beyond a transitional jam. The second Strobelights jam almost sounds like a Rio jam a bit, but I don’t think they ever quite get there. In any event, it’s extremely pretty Blissco jamming. Great stuff to get the show back on track. The band eventually leaves this Blissco jam and shifts uptempo to transition to the Crickets peak. The rest of this is pretty forgettable. So too is the Crickets first jam. Not a lot here I care about. The second Crickets jam begins with a fast-paced DNB jam, and around the 20:00 mark, the band changes themes a bit. This goes from a darker, more straightforward DNB jam to a major key theme for a minute or so before returning to a minor key. This feels a little disjointed to me. Eventually they shift into a dub jam, and Magner swaps to the pan flute patch. Brownstein teases Tower of Dub a couple times, and there’s actually a really cool thing at 26:00 where Barber plays the hook from Park Ave – a song which wouldn’t be debuted until the very next set.

Park Ave is a solid song that I thought was a nice debut. The Caterpillar jam is a solid, fun jam. I’ve seen people call this best ever. I don’t agree. It’s solid, but I don’t find this much beyond that. The jam out of Ladies initially is filler to start. After the switch to the I-Man track, Barber has some really nice licks littered throughout, but this jam never really landed for me. The jam out of I-Man features Magner on a square wave arp, and in what seems to be the theme of this show, this is solid, but not much beyond that. They basically played this show like a festival set, which makes sense for what it was at the time. The second half of this jam shifts from the major key square wave stuff to a minor key Orch intro jam. Brownstein is basically playing Orch Theme during a good chunk of this jam while the rest of the band builds. There is a short middle jam in Orch Theme that lasts all of 3 minutes. Even though this was really cool sounding, they basically play the Orch Theme outro vamp for half of the jam. The jam out of Orch Theme is basically one long Caterpillar ending build. I don’t normally note ending jams as a highlight, but this one is enough of a monster that it warrants it. This is basically a 5-minute long build/peak, and they never lose any steam throughout. Awesome stuff. Ah, Mirrors at Red Rocks. I guess in retrospect the dancers were a bad idea, considering how meme’d this particular version of this song became. In any event, the jam is a DNB jam to start, and the first few minutes are totally forgettable. As the band nears the end of the Mirrors track, Magner is at least doing some cool stuff, but this is otherwise fairly directionless. From there, they shift into a four-on-the-floor beat as they head toward the I-Man ending. The rest of this is paint-by-numbers. White Chicks and Gang Signs was a really odd choice here, but okay. The City jam to end the show is okay. At one point Brownstein teases Crickets. Neat. Around the 7:00 mark, Allen shifts to double-time and the band begins a DNB jam that marks their ascent toward Svenghali ending. Magner plays the Gates of Hell patch around 7:55, though it’s heavily distorted and also the gate is way faster than it normally is. That said, not even the Gates of Hell can save this jam for me. This is just a little too all over the place, although I’ll give this an honorable mention since Magner’s stuff here sounds so, so cool.

Highlights: Rock Candy*, Strobelights (2**), Crickets (2), Caterpillar, I-Man (4), Orch (2)