December 31, 2012

Stone > Waltz is standard. Story is the usual midtempo funk. Spectacle goes directly into the countdown, which is at least really neat, and well-done. This drops directly into a Basis intro, which is three minutes long. Yay. The Basis 2nd jam starts with intention. The band locks in immediately and hits on a descending progression, spearheaded by Brownstein. Barber plays rhythm while Magner’s arpeggios in the upper register round out this thematic, focused jam. This is exactly what I want from a Basis > Ladies jam. That said, I don’t think this is a particularly effective peak. Barber’s tone and phrasing here is, incidentally, NOT what I want out of a Ladies peak. The first several minutes are all Barber, and not in a good way. He noodles the first 5 minutes with zero direction, and it actively takes away from the jam. Ugh.

Shimmy starts out with a dark and ominous jam, led by Magner with a menacing melody. Barber’s affected tone here works incredibly well, and the overall vibe is truly evil and haunting. Around the 11:30 mark, Brownstein changes the direction of the jam, seemingly abrupt. He seems to switch this to a major key, and I don’t fully understand why, given that Tempest was slated to be played next. However, Magner uses the Angel Choir patch to create a nice atmosphere for this uplifting piece of music. Unfortunately, Barber can’t seem to decide what he wants to do here, and he winds up mostly noodling here. Apparently frustrated by Barber’s lack of direction, the band gives up and heads back to minor key territory. Shame. Around the 14-minute mark, Brownstein hits on the Tempest theme, and what results is basically a long intro.

The jam out of Tempest begins sounding like they’re headed for Orch Theme or something similar, but changes direction to the more jamband-sounding B&C. Nothing memorable here. The jam out of B&C begins with a fairly straightforward four-on-the-floor jam. However, around the 8-minute mark, they drop the tempo and intensity and Barber comes up with a creative little riff that has a vaguely ethereal quality to it. This feels close to hitting on something really great, but never quite gets there before getting to the AC2B peak. After this, they hit on a spacy jam in which they show a great deal of restraint. It’s not often during this time period that the band would allow themselves to let things breathe this way, and it’s often fantastic when they do so (as is the case here). Around the 5-minute mark, they pick up the pace and Allen returns to the snare. They build this in a really organic way to the AC2B ending. Memphis 1st jam doesn’t do much for me here. The 2nd jam has a DNB jam to begin that’s absolutely monotonous and boring. Around the 15-minute mark, they drop to half-time and switch to a major key and build a fantastic Blissco theme. Amazing how they can sound like a different (and better) band in just the span of a few minutes. Unfortunately, this theme only lasts a couple minutes before they change toward some uninspired midtempo funk. It’s so painfully obvious that they’re headed to Story here that I wish they would just get on with it. Munchkin’s jam begins with a dark theme from Magner, and Brownstein makes an overt series of teases of Shimmy ending. This feels a little out of place, but it’s more frustrating that it feels like this really hinder the jam here. It goes nowhere from here and never has a chance to breathe.

Waves has a directionless DNB jam where Barber is mostly noodly. However, at 10:14 they drop the beat altogether and play an ambient jam. Allen is on cymbals and toms, and the other three play out a spacey intro to Spaga. I’m not sure this is a highlight per se, but I wish they’d let themselves do this much more often. The jam out of Spaga is short and forgettable, and the transition back to Waves seems rushed. The entirety of the Magellan is pretty paint-by-numbers. If you’re a fan of Magellan you’ll probably like it. I find a lot of Magellan’s sound very similar, and this one falls into that bucket. DTTB > Basis is disrespectfully rushed. This could have been a 25-minute segment, and instead it was about 10. I get that it’s NYE, but take some songs out of your setlist and do what you do best. Fiddler is a fitting (if standard) encore.

Highlights: Basis, Shimmy, AC2B*, Memphis*

The song selection in this show is obviously A+, but many jams were just not interesting enough for me and Barber was still in his DGAF noodley phase (although 12/29/12 showed glimpses of hope that "the boys were back"). Little Shimmy > Tempest had a great Middle-Eastern-type jam, the Aceetobee peak has some great shredding by Barber, and Munchkin Invasion is actually a pretty killer standalone version... Super psychedelic jam and energetic peak, although they did not nail the drop (which was pretty common during this time period). Still an amazing experience seeing them in the MSG Theater, especially after seeing a super fun Phish show in the same building.