April 26, 2013

Trucker’s Choice has a type 1 jam that doesn’t do much here. Brownstein states Kamaole Sands is played as a special request. Who is requesting Kamaole Sands? What? In any event, the jam is plain. The HAB jam is fantastic and feels like it stretches on forever. Magner has some wonderful leads here, and Barber knows well enough to just sit in the pocket until he’s needed. Great stuff. This leads nicely to a Confrontation peak. The Confro jam itself leaves me wanting more, and leads the band to a Robots fakeout. Instead, they head to Svenghali. The jam out of Sven is pretty bland to me, and leads somewhat predictably into Ape. Meh.

The Reactor jam is alright. It leans a little too hard on the “we’re playing fast and dissonant” concept without being interesting enough. However, the portion just before the Humu transition (after the half-time drop and before the transition) is really cool. The Humu jam is phenomenal, and has a whole lot of Magner. This is probably my favorite of the night, and it’s got a mysterious vibe to it that I can’t get enough of. This Buddha turns into an all out electronic assault. Magner has some great stuff going on here, and Barber doesn’t take away from this too much. There are a few parts where it felt like Allen was out of tempo, which is somewhat unusual. Honestly, he’s the weakest link here, despite adding some cool elements to the jam. Cyclone also has a solid dance jam in it, though this is considerably less interesting than the Buddha jam. This feels a little more 2009-y to me. Barber hits some great rhythmic licks here, and the band crescendos to a nice Buddha peak. The Bazaar > Reactor does nothing for me. The Mulberry’s encore actually is decent, but it’s just too short for me to want to relisten.

Highlights: HAB*, Reactor, Humu*, Buddha*, Cyclone