July 13, 2013

Frog Legs is standard. Sven is forgettable. First Magellan jam is typical, and not memorable either. The second Magellan jam is not nearly long enough, but the transition into Strobelights is at least interesting, and an interesting pairing. Brownstein teases Spaga a few times before the drop into Strobelights. This jam is fairly bland, although there’s a neat little “Get Lucky” jam (tease?) in here. The jam back into Magellan is long, winding, and never really locks into any interesting themes. There’s no “last jam” here in Magellan, but they do a small Stir It Up jam, which I’m always a bit of a sucker for.

Memphis has a pretty standard first jam, though the end of it switches to double-time as they head toward Floes. The last two minutes of this are pretty neat. Not something worth relistening to, but at least finally something worth listening to the first time. Allen is an absolute maniac on the toms here. The Floes jam never really locks in for me. It sounds a LOT like a Basis ending jam for a bit, but there’s nothing novel here. The Story jam turns into a Spaga 2nd jam. Not sure why this is happening but it’s unnecessary. Rock Candy has a really solid dance jam in it. This is not amazing by any means, but has a very nice groove to it that’s impossible not to bob your head to. Barber’s tone here is really nice and Magner plays around with a “hands up” patch. Jams with these patches can often feel corny to me, but this one is pretty restrained and fits in nicely. The jam out of Tricycle is basically an Orch Theme jam from the first note. While it’s not bad, I’m not really into these long type 1 intro jams. That said, the 1st Orch Theme jam is awesome. Very danceable, and has some great playing from Magner.

The RLH intro jam is absolutely marvelous. It begins with an ambient jam that the entire band plays wonderfully. When the drumbeat comes in, the band develops a great VI-VII-I theme that is unique and interesting. From there, they add in a second theme, which involves some great communication between Barber and Brownstein. After a minute or two of this, they return to the ascending theme and it really pays off. The 1st jam here is solid, even if it’s only 2 minutes. The 2nd jam is a little dark, but keeps sort of a lowkey danceability to it throughout. This isn’t great, but there are some nice parts, and overall I liked it. The Shimmy jam is weird. It basically is a type 1 jam for Shimmy ending for the first several minutes, then it abruptly drops to a half-time groove, then they hit a Dub Dribble. The jam out is just fine. It sounds like it’s headed for Waves for a bit, but then veers and heads toward Munchkin instead. The Munchkin jam is somewhat typical as far as Munchkin jams go, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This features a lot of “softer” leads from Magner and Barber, while remaining in a minor key. It keeps that adventurous and mysterious quality that a lot of Munchkins tend to have. I like it! The Crickets jam is pretty boring the first several minutes. Around the 10-minute mark, they drop into a dark, dissonant jam that moves more uptempo and really focuses on that relentless “evil” sound they can do so well when they want to.

Jamilia is a pretty gross song. The jam out is okay, but not long enough to be noteworthy. Basically gets into Tempest after a minute or two. The Tempest jam, similarly, has no time to breathe and just jumps into a Munchkin ending jam. Meh.

Highlights: Rock Candy, RLH (Intro**, 1, 2), Munchkin, Crickets