June 06, 2009

Standard uber glue into an awesome caves (standout version for me). Love the guitar themes barber starts off with and the whole band starts to pick up tempo around 7-8m. Really awesome groove starts and the whole band launches into a dancy untz which evolves into 42. Really sick segment to start the show. 42 starts off with a dancy theme with magner leading the way but evaporates into more of a psychedelic Like jam. Great interplay between barber/magner in the first jam here. Doesn’t venture out far or anything, but solid all around (love the synth riff around 12m into abraxas). Pretty standard until about 4m in then barber launches into an awesome little jazz lick which starts the takeoff into the composed section. Jam out of abraxas goes into a more mellow, Spacier theme which continues until the band picks up pace back into 42. 100% a highlight of this set, band just firing in this jam/peak. First jam in strobelights is really awesome, sadly missing a chunk of this segment on the sbd.

Awesome Rockafella to start, picks up around 6m or so with a nice uptempo major jam, great short and effective version. Really awesome catapillar first jam, has everything for me in the untz, solid peak into voices, etc. filler jam in voices but gets into a dark untz which moves into the main theme of orch. Nothing crazy in orch>abyss but solid playing throughout. Keeps a solid tempo but doesnt drift out too far or anything. Abyss > spacebird > catapillar is a huge highlight for me from this show. Barber really shines in this jam, especially the move into catapillar. Nothing crazy to finish the set with the flight section for HAB, basis completing the show prior, into sabre dance which i always love. Encore is f****** awesome, great short version of Humu and a killer robots. Groove starts around the 5m which is super laid back but fun interplay between the whole band. Second jam has a little more pace and some type 1 jamming. All in all, great way to close out this show

All in all love this show, one big dance party (makes sense being starscape). Tons of relistenability with the caves > 42>abraxas>42, the catapillar segment in s2, and save the robots.

Uber Glue is jamless. Caves begins with a jam that sounds like a natural extension of the song, with Brownstein on MIDI keyboard and Magner using a lot of the trumpet “hits” from the song. Barber has really nice lead lines here that give a sort of mysterious quality to the jam. Around the 8:00 mark, the band shifts uptempo quickly, and suddenly they embark on a dance jam. This turns into a very cool duntzgeon theme. The dance section only lasts 5 minutes or so before they get into the composition for 42, but this 5 minute section is fantastic. Great dance groove with the entire band just locked in. Awesome. The 42 jam doesn’t do much for me. This mostly feels like filler until they get close to the transition to Abraxas, where it gets marginally more interesting. The Abraxas jam is similarly filler. Strobelights has another straightforward dance jam. The band heavily teases Shadow, before ultimately moving on. This is noted on the .net page as an instrumental version. Eh. Not sure I’d agree, they don’t play a lot of the composition, don’t play the ending. This feels like a “jam” on the theme to me. Anyway. The Cyclone track is only 1:52, and seems to have been some sort of glitch in the recording. Neither the Cyclone composition nor the Cyclone jam exist, and are apparently lost to time, as no AUD exists either.

Rockafella begins the second set with another filler jam. This is mostly treading water again, however, there is a 1-2 minute period where the band switches things up to a DNB jam. These couple minutes make the jam sound like it is headed to Svenghali, before ultimately peeling back and finishing Rockafella. The Caterpillar jam is extremely uneven. The first few minutes begin with Magner playing a melody with an abrupt two octave jump followed by a descending pattern. This little theme is cool, although it doesn’t really give the band much room to grow with it. Around the 6:00 mark, the band settles into a nice pocket, and Magner gets a little more minimalist in his play. He switches up to just playing accenting notes, while Barber figures out which of his riffs he’s going to rely upon for this jam. Unfortunately, he has some difficulty coming to a decision. He cycles through a number of riffs here, and in general it just feels like he’s a little directionless while the rest of the band treads onward. The band is a little directionless due to Barber’s play, but this gets markedly better around the 11:00 mark. At about 11:10, Brownstein comes up with a nice four-chord progression, and the band’s thematic work from here on out is very solid. This is good enough to at least forgive the directionlessness of the several minutes prior. Notably, they also manage to turn this into a really solid improvised peak before beginning Voices. The Voices Insane jam continues with the general theme of the night, being a mostly filler, forgettable jam. I wasn’t terribly impressed with the Orch Theme jam either. The last few minutes before the Orch Theme composition starts is solid, but again this is nothing all that unusual, unique, or interesting. Abyss into Spacebird is again, forgettable. The only real interesting thing here is that I believe Brownstein is teasing the On Time ending bassline before they drop into Spacebird. Spacebird begins with a straightforward jam, although at least with this one, it’s a somewhat interesting theme. They vamp on a major key theme, and Barber has some great licks here. There is a very cool moment at 10:16, where Allen does a short build to lead into the snare drum drop. Simple stuff like this is so effective at giving the jam added dimension. As the band hits the Caterpillar track, they make the switch to a minor key for the Caterpillar ending. This transition is so, so smooth, almost to the point where you don’t even feel the minor key switch. This whole ending jam is absolutely fantastic, with Barber in particular particularly playing extremely well. There is another phenomenal moment at the 0:42 mark where the band switches from this minor key bridge theme to a straight up ending jam. Barber’s riff is fantastic and sets the tone for the remainder of the jam. I don’t normally love putting type 1 jams as highlights, but this one is way too good not to. Following the end of Caterpillar, they throw out Flight from HAB, “Gimme all your fuckin money” from Basis, then Sabre Dance. One of these things where maybe this is more fun being there live than re-listening. Humu has another inoffensive, forgettable jam. This genuinely was a straightforward festival set. Robots to end the show is much more straightforward than I recalled it being. I remember hearing people talk about how incredible this version was, and I was generally underwhelmed on re-listen. The first jam never gets far outside the box, and while it’s mostly well played, just doesn’t stretch into highlight territory for me. The second jam is only about three minutes before hitting the ending section, and simply doesn’t have room enough to get good.

Highlights: Caves**, Caterpillar*, Spacebird*

Root canal tested, fantastic show! Something about Starscape always brings out the best in the band, ‘06-‘10 are all excellent shows. This show has exceptional versions of every song here. Caves, Abraxas, 42, Park Ave, Caterpillar, Voices, Orch, Spacebird & a rare peak only of Basis are all highlights. Who needs a technical recap, I had a root canal while listening to this w/ no pain meds or n20 & the 3hrs went by much faster listening to these guys play fluid jams & hitting every note just right. Thanks tDB!

too stoned to be thorough or technical; Treemac is good at that.

Starscape 2009 is a CLASSIC! 1- Caves turns on the jets nicely into 42; the inverted Abraxas is phenomenal with a nice funky drum beat, nasty basslines and Magner laying a huge dome of that nice Abraxas sonic synth. Strobe to Strobe including an instrumental Shadow is one of the highlights of the night.

2- Cater to pillar sandwich to end the show is why this is the best band on the planet. It's also the reason I spend more on stereo equipment than my car {a 2004 Subaru Outback, girls get in line) Seriously from the outro groove of Voices through top notch versions of Orch and Abyss then a complete handstand into Spacebird can make you cry.

A+ for the encores.

It's essential to have great strains for this classic show. Here are 2 that spiritually go hand and hand with the power and Godliness of said concert::: [Super Silver Haze] old school fav. this puppy keeps you glowing for a LONG time. Perfect 2009 Biscuits side dish. and/or [Green Crack] a very focused, energetic strain that is made for concerts. this tasty mango like bud has a nice euphoric gleam to it. you should have a ball with these strains and spring tour '09.

peace and luv