July 11, 2013

7-11 on 7/11, get it? The first jam here is somewhat meandering for the first several minutes. While they’re in the “reggae” section, it’s at least a little bit more purposeful, but they leave this section for a spacier jam, and frankly it doesn’t feel like they know what they want to do here. Around the 9:36 mark they switch to something a little more focused, and Magner lands on a really interesting series of melodies. The band hastens, but unfortunately this merely leads to them ditching Magner’s interesting riff in favor of an Abraxas intro jam. Parts of this are somewhat interesting, but I’ll probably never listen again. Around the 8-minute mark, Abraxas has a really solid groove working, but unfortunately they leave this for something much less interesting. Barber ruins much of this jam for me as he’s just not doing anything that’s altogether interesting. The first Spaga jam is a DNB jam, and I typically find these pretty bland and/or directionless. This one has flashes of brilliance, but ultimately they never really build a theme at grabs me. The second Spaga jam is certainly cohesive, and the band does a nice enough job of communicating, but again I’m just not interested in much of what they’re playing. The drop back into 7-11 is very well-executed. The “you wanna go out and jam” line repeated is really cool, and unexpected. Hearing Barber scream like this was jarring in a great way.

The jam out of 7-11 is the first one in the show I find particularly interesting. The segment at 5:42 is really neat, and has this dark, ominous feel to it, like something horrible is about to happen. This is great, even if it’s way, way too short. Brownstein hits on a Tricycle-esque progression after the switch to the I-Man track. This is really cool, even if it’s not nearly as cool as the darkness that preceded it. The first I-Man jam fortunately steps outside its type 1 box. At the 6:18 mark, Barber hits an absolutely beautiful riff that is hypnotic and mysterious. Brownstein and Allen pace the band with a slow, deliberate, measured intensity. Magner’s vibraphone patch echoes in the upper registers, and the band lets loose with some very interesting, exploratory improv. Fi. na. lly. They return to home base a little too quick for my tastes, but this was phenomenal. They have some problems with the lyrics, or something. Not sure what the issue is here, but second verse is weird here. The second jam is again well-played, and the band is communicating, but I don’t find the theme convincing once again. There’s nothing in this jam that makes me sit up and pay attention. The last I-Man jam is a type 1 jam that never really develops.

Highlights: 7-11 (2*), I-Man (1*)

7/11 was the highlight for me. Barber clearly had a fire lit for this and screached and bellowed "come out and JAAAMMM". This was the first sign to me the boys had burried the hatchet for whatever transpired and were finally having fun again