March 17, 2010

This is a pretty good show, although it's a strange one. Interesting to consider the context of Wristgate happening the night after this. It's largely a mid-tempo affair (with a few pockets of frenzied untz) whose best moments are more rooted in texture than rhythm or melody. Flash Mob is perfectly pleasant, and Papercut is perhaps more interesting when it’s in the Type 1 zone; Ladies is really where the show starts to work its magic. The transition into Ladies is pretty good on its own, finding the right balance between patient and aggressive. The jam out of Ladies though, is a beautiful, minimal, gossamer unfolding. It almost gets a little Lotus-y in its restraint. Barber creates a lot of space for Marn and Magz to explore. This follows into a particularly dramatic Great Abyss that breaks down into something dubwise and then disintegrates entirely before Grass is Green. Can’t say I’ve ever been a big fan of Grass is Green, but there’s plenty of moody, exploratory jamming here that culminates well with a plucked synth riff from Magner guiding things.

Speaking of songs I’ve never been a big fan of, set 2 opens with Caves of the East. This is probably the weakest part of the whole evening, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone loved this jam. I can’t think of many great jams that have springboarded out of Caves; the one here is also fairly dated-sounding in terms of 2010 electronic music. That it goes on for so long hurts the final score for this show, but thankfully it’s followed by an incredible I-Man. The I-Man opens right away with a lot of nasty, distorted noise. The bulk of the middle jam is abstract and at times nearly industrial. The klaxon sounds remind me a lot of whale song-era Phish. It contains some real moments of beauty, despite all this. Highly recommended. Despite 42 being broadcast pretty early on, the luxuriant leadup to 42 takes its time. By the time 42 really gets cooking, it has seamlessly transitioned into Confrontation. The Confrontation jam presents yet another interesting mix of pensive and abrasive before the pearly gates open back up for the conclusion of I-Man.

Both sets need basically a half hour of runtime to get to the good stuff, which is a drawback. Still, when you get past the front-loaded filler you have some top shelf Biscuits. 4.5 seems like an appropriate score, but I could see a wide variety of opinions on this show.