January 25, 2013

Run Like Hell begins with a downtempo jam that has Magner flooding the upper registers with washes and sweeps. I would call this jam more atmospheric than anything else. If somebody asked you to hum the primary melody, you probably could not. However, the overall vibe here is great. The first jam is really solid. Nothing here is very outside-of-the-box, but it’s played well, and the band seems to be communicating well. Specifically, Barber here plays restrained and has some nice minimalist licks that add to the jam nicely. The jam out of RLH relies a little too heavily on Allen’s e-kick, which in this instance I don’t think adds a whole lot of dimension to the jam. I also think they tip their hand a little too quickly regarding the Tricycle transition. The jam out of Tricycle has a very Bernstein & Chasnoff vibe from the very beginning. Around 6:45 they ditch this and basically do a Sound One fakeout. This lasts for maybe 30 seconds, but then melds into the Confrontation beginning. Barber continues playing Sound One while the rest of the band hits Confrontation beginning. Neat effect. The Confrontation jam gets very sinister and dissonant, and while I like this a lot, I don’t feel like it lasts nearly long enough that I want to re-listen to this. At one point, Brownstein has a clear Nughuffer tease, but the Confrontation peak is basically immediately after. The Echoes jam is fantastic. Around the 12-minute mark, the entire band switches to an ambient jam, and they have some wonderful, textural stuff. I absolutely adore when they do this. They come back in with a with a really solid progression, and they build up a mysterious trance jam. This is so cool, and I love the overall feel that they have here.

There is no jam after Therapy (more of a “drop segue”). The Spacebird jam has some really neat stuff to it, but there is something here that just doesn’t fully land, and I’m not sure what it is. On paper, this is a jam that I should love: interesting leads from Magner, Barber lying back in the pocket, deliberate playing from Allen, nice progression from Brownstein. However, the overall combination of these items here just doesn’t draw me in. The Cyclone jam is very fast, but that’s about it. The Waves jam turns into this downtempo jam with Magner on a very formant-sounding synth patch. I really like when he uses this patch, even if this downtempo portion doesn’t do a whole lot. Around the 19-minute mark, they pick back up and develop a four-on-the-floor jam. Doesn’t do much, but the transition into Rock Candy is solid. The jam out of Rock Candy was immemorable, except that it felt like at one point Brownstein was playing the PBR progression over the house jam, which was neat. Spraypaint is mostly dissonant for the first several minutes, including a Shimmy ending fakeout. The Echoes encore begins with another ambient jam and turns into a great intro jam, similar to a RLH intro.

Highlights: RLH (Intro, 1), Echoes (1**, 2*)