June 03, 2009

The start of relistening to all of june 09

Pretty cool show in the sense that they did CWB in full but honestly pretty weak for June 09 standards. First set pretty straight forward with some cool jams in the ladies>floodlights and rockafella. Second set has the meat of the show with the confrontation sammy but honestly not something i’ll probably listen to often. The jam into the confron ending would be my highlight.

If this was any other month i’d probably be higher on this show, but gave a 2.5/5

Brownstein begins this show by telling the crowd they have an “extra special” show that night. Usually this is bullshit, in this case they play the full Chemical Warfare Brigade opera. The Home Again jam to begin the show is very cool, and has Magner using a very fast, clicky arp. This gives the whole jam a really neat textural effect, and the rest of the band’s spacey play certainly helps as well. This builds really naturally toward the ending of Home Again and results in a perfect drop back into the song, complete with soaring guitar from Barber. Great stuff to open the show. The Rockafella jam has Barber on the syncopated guitar effect that he typically uses in Uber Glue, giving a great tremolo feel to the entire jam. The first few minutes of this have a great groove to them, buoyed by this effect from Barber. Around 8:30 Barber switches to a more traditional lead and the band crafts a nice build. Plan B has a short jam that is mostly just a build to the end. Eh, this is fine. The Lai jam is pretty straightforward. Near the end, I think Magner has some really solid lead lines, but other than that this is mostly forgettable. The jam in Ladies begins with Barber doing some minimalist guitar work. Brownstein quickly comes up with a nice bass progression that is pretty similar to the progression for Rainbow Song. Obviously, this is an uptempo, dance version, but still it’s very similar. In any event, they lock into a really solid dance groove and Magner has some really nice leads littered throughout this jam. I felt like this never quite got out of first gear, but it’s very solid regardless. Around the 8:00 mark, the band begins a progression that is eerily similar to what would become Miracles later on. Not sure if this is deliberate, something they were working on at the time, or what, but very cool. Floodlights begins with a neat little two minute intro vamp. I didn’t note the intro as a highlight as it just wasn’t long enough, but it is neat that they carry this theme through to the actual jam 4-5 minutes later. The Floodlights jam is really cool, with a very unique sound. Barber has a great theme that he carries throughout a lot of this, and in general there’s just a great vibe going on.

Shelby is about as straightforward as it can be, decent peak. CWB has a short, squarely inside the box jam. Three Wishes is standalone of course. Confrontation has a really solid dance jam in it. This is really nice and has a great pocket to it, but they stay pretty safe most of this jam. Barber in particular has perfect phrasing throughout this jam. The build and peak into Helicopters is well-done, also. Helicopters has a focused groove from the entire band. However, I wasn’t blown away by this. Magner in particular is playing some relatively corny leads, and this didn’t really land for me. Shadow is played in a somewhat unusual way, in that they mess with the composition. I’m not sure if this was deliberate or if they just forgot how the song went. In any event, they do not play the big ending riff from the song, so technically this is unfinished. This and 04/19/08 are the two best versions of Shadow. This initially begins with a fairly straightforward jam into the ending of Confrontation. Around the 2:00 mark, the band pulls back and spaces out for a bit, then comes back in with some minor key jamming. This is almost a Confrontation ending fakeout, then a jam, then Confrontation ending. The jam is dance party central, and they go through multiple themes here, all of which are great. The section around the 12-14 minute mark is my favorite, but basically this whole 20-minute long jam is fantastic from start-to-finish. Magner in particular is absolutely on fire throughout this. Awesome, awesome, awesome. The encore has a jamless Tamarin Alley and a short Mulberry’s where they somehow cram in two short jams. Meh.

Highlights: Home Again*, Rockafella*, Ladies, Floodlights**, Confrontation*, Shadow**