January 14, 2011

This show has a weird, greasy energy like mid-80's Dead. I looked into this one based off of a Phantasy Tour spreadsheet; I don't think this show is my particular cup of tea, but I can see why someone else would absolutely love it. It's as psychedelic as it is jarring.

Floodlights is probably my favorite of the night, which got my hopes up. Barber opens channeling Curtis Mayfield with his breezy guitar licks with Brownie nudging him right along with a nice R&B bassline. The second jam strikes at a similar late night funk vein, but with a little more menace. The tone abruptly shifts before the frenzied spin-out into Boop. Both of the Boop jams were a bit too wanky for my taste, but the first one is a little better. The Munchkin jam takes a while to go anywhere exciting until Magner wrings some pure poetry out of a theremin patch. Barber wisely offers support with muted chords rather than showboating over it. It teases The Cars' Living in Stereo before it plops us into Basis. I really didn't care for this drop; it sucks out the momentum and everyone sounds a little bit at a loss. As is the case with a lot of Basis versions from this era, it's Aron Magner's Disco Biscuits Vocoder Bonanza. I don't mind these, although this one is fairly middle of the road.

The second set is straight up demented in places. Trucker's Choice and Abyss both feature Magner abusing the hell out of a portamento lead, getting more and more unhinged as they go along. The Bombs jam flitters in and out of key like someone's twiddling a pitch shifter; it's hard to tell if it's brilliant or sloppy. Or both (like I said, mid 80s Dead). Then, there's both Shimmy jams that remind me of Kraftwerk's Hall of Mirrors in different ways. IRW feels like a weird note to end on, following all that came before it--but perhaps in being so off-putting, it fits perfectly.

I'll say this is a 3.5. There's enough to admire, but you really have to be in the right headspace to appreciate the hypnotic, gunky qualities of this show. The playing can get a little too scatterbrained for my liking.

The Floodlights intro jam here is almost a Basis intro jam from the start, including Marc teasing the Basis intro bassline in a different key. In this case, concept is much cooler than execution. The first several minutes of the Floodlights jam are pretty mediocre, but around the 14-minute mark, they develop a neat little call-and-response jam between Magner and Barber. They pick up the pace a lot to transition to Boop, but the rest of this is just okay. The usual funk jam in Boop is quickly turned into something more interesting, with a great lead from Magner on a simple saw-sine lead. This jam is pretty decent throughout, but never gets to a point I’d call noteworthy. The second jam is similar in that it’s not bad, but not good. Munchkin has a really neat theme in it. This is not mindblowing, but really the only thing in the first set thus far worth relistening to. The portion prior to the Basis track change is really nice, featuring some really eerie leads from Magner. With that said, it’s disappointing that this basically robs us of the Basis intro jam. Oh well. The Basis second jam is really cool. Magner has a bunch of wahwah effect on his sweeps throughout the end of the jam and the effect is very neat. This isn’t as good as the Munchkin jam, but still solid.

Trucker’s Choice has a decent jam. This is mostly Magner making some interesting choices with patches and melodies. Barber and Brownstein are mostly just kinda “there,” but it’s okay regardless. The Shimmy jam is very digital, with some great arps from Magner littering the early portions of this jam. I’m honestly surprised that Allen didn’t drop e-drums here as they would have fit perfectly. It’s again, decent, but never hits next level. Bombs begins with a really cool digital theme as well. Sadly, the section around the 10:00 mark is insanely cool, but is dropped shortly thereafter. Very sad. That said, they manage to rebuild an even more bizarre and digital jam around the 13-minute mark. This gets weird and awesome and is probably the jam of the night. Abyss is also dark, dirty, and nasty. This feels like a logical outgrowth of the Bombs weirdness that preceded it. This whole segment beginning at Bombs warrants a big relisten. Shimmy ending is well-done. IRW is standard. Therapy encore is standard.

Highlights: Munchkin, Basis, Bombs**, Abyss**