June 26, 2009

7/11 first jam is really nothing special imo - some daft punk teases in the 2nd jam over some slower trance but then starts to pickup around 13ish min which is awesome. Cool little segue into sabre as well. Strobihjts doesnt really go anywhere until the 9ish minute mark which has a pretty cool ambient riff by Barber. Nothing like hall of fame worthy, but leads into a cool ambient jam. Minions segue isnt noteworthy but love this song so ill take it. Jam Meanders a bit but really starts to catch on around the 10ish min mark which sets the groove back towards strobelights. The jam in strobelights has a soft spot for me - used this as filler on a biscuits mix cd i made back in 2010, the daft punk samples were always a blunt ride hit for the rednecks at my rural bumblefuck PA college my freshman year. The jam is just straight biscuits untz, most would say nothing special but ive always loved it. The jam in iman super blissed out and just pure awesomeness, especially around the 8min mark with the interplay between barber/magner to start the peak. Killer way to close a set which had its moments forsure

Caves opener is super glitch hoppy, really cool version with a decent outro jam. Park ave is a throwaway but dont hate the song or anything. Segue into it though def noteworthy, pretty cool jam outta caves. Reactor starts with the racy trance jam is usually has with brownie leading the charge. Dont care much for this jam at all and at points felt like skipping it tbh. Crystal ball segue is decent and the first jam is the shining moment of s2 imo. The full interplay between barber/magner at 5m or so is really awesome. Extremely strong playing here by the band. Around 8-9m the tempo starts to really pick up into a full blown untz, just awesome. Really awesome playing by magner on the kaos in this jam as well, love the groove 10-11m. Start of peak around 12m some epic playing by barber, really awesome tone on those higher notes. At points felt like this was going to segue into the suspended in the air portion of astronaut but then magner hits the abyss synth and off we go. Abyss jam pretty standard 4 on the floor untz jam, playing around 7m in though is really cool with the samples which you can start to hear barber teasing crix peak under them. Crix peak pretty standard, doesnt stray too far from the main theme. Outro jam from the peak is whatever as well, slow, disjointed, and meandering. Rest of show is whatever as we go back into reactor ending then a short morph as the band runs outta time.

2.5/5 for this one, 100% weakest show of the run IMO. Highlights are end of s1 with the strobelights >iman, caves, and crystal ball jam.

7-11 is one of my favorite openers. Great way to get a lot of energy right out of the gate. The “towel” jam here is fine, but nothing special. Second jam begins with the usual fast trance, though Magner starts throwing out a Daft Punk sample from Harder Better Faster Stronger. Strobelights has a few minutes of filler jam before the band begins a long, long, long intro jam for Minions. This is basically 9+ minutes of an intro jam. Yeesh. I just don’t find anything interesting about the return jam from Minions, but was very glad that Minions made this comeback. Following the Strobelights return, they play a “Harder Better Faster Stronger” jam. This is not really a cover, more just a jam with the samples. Then they play a short jam into I-Man’s middle section. The I-Man jam is actually really interesting as it features a lot of very pretty psychedelia with great interplay between Magner and Barber. This stretches into type 2 territory for a bit and is good enough for me. Very cool, Blissco-y stuff.

The second set begins with the reworked Caves of the East. This is the first time they really implemented the vocal samples and the choppy, beat-repeat drum noises, and I think in many ways was an important moment for the band, as it gave them the confidence to do more and more with Ableton, which they’d not fully take advantage of for years thereafter. I noted this as a major highlight for this reason. There is a brief jam out of Caves into Park Ave, which is really just transitory, but I noted this as a strong highlight because of the Caves type 1 jam, as it’s notable for the time. Reactor begins with the cacophonous trance jam it typically has, then cuts to half-time. Almost all of this jam was forgettable, with parts I found overtly obnoxious. The Crystal Ball jam develops into an uptempo, major key jam. I found Barber’s tone here pretty shrill and it was distracting. Didn’t think the jam was awful other than that, but this distracted me enough out of liking the jam. In the intro for Abyss (and then throughout the composition), Barber is teasing the MIA vocal sample from the reworked Caves of the East. Clearly they were quite excited about the rework. The jam out of Abyss has a really cool synth patch from Magner being used, and that’s about as much as I can say about this. Other than that, very forgettable. Crickets jam is similarly forgettable. Most of this show is, to be honest. Morph encore lasts only a few minutes and has no time to grow. Weak show.

Highlights: I-Man, Caves**

if you think you might like the Disco Biscuits and havent heard this show, listen to crystal ball > abyss. Brought to you by Pink Stars