December 29, 2013

Shem-Rah drops immediately into Pygmy, jamless. The Pygmy jam has some neat elements, and they wind up in a half-happy, half-mysterious sounding jam. I’m not sure they’re all on the same page here, and it feels a little disjointed. They eventually wind up in the SITA section, which actually makes a lot of sense given the sound prior to them landing here. Astronaut has a nice call-and-response jam where Magner and Barber trade off two-bar melodies in a neat way. This isn’t groundbreaking by any means, but it’s enough to keep me engaged and interested. The jam out of DOTSPF starts out sounding like it could be really neat. Allen is using an array of e-drums and bells and whistles here, but this eventually gets mundane to the point of boredom. They hit the end of Astronaut and I’m almost relieved that they’re back into composition. They jam out of the ending of Astronaut, which I always enjoy. However, the jam itself turns into very mediocre jammy funk. Blah times a thousand.

The jam out of Safety Dance turns into a slow four-on-the-floor jam that does very little for. Magner has a great descending riff, but the band never does much with it. Most of the time I was waiting for them to hook me, and it just never happened. The middle section of Basis is extended significantly, but as seems to be the theme of the night, there’s not a whole lot interesting going on in this extension. The Basis 2nd jam is easily the highlight of the night to this point. Brownstein hits a great four-chord progression that honestly is pretty reminiscent of Shem-Rah Balloon. Beautiful stuff from everybody. The Cyclone jam has a bunch of very dark and ominous stuff, but ultimately I don’t think there’s much of a payoff here. Barber has some really great riffs, but ironically it’s Brownstein and Magner for once who seem content to toil in mediocrity. The Waves jam is the typical combination around this time of fast and mundane. The end of the jam as they get closer to Munchkin is not terrible, but not something I’d ever listen to again, either. Munchkin is solid, if forgettable. They do an outro jam for Munchkin which I think has some potential, but never hits the next level. This turns into a much heavier “rock” jam, much less electronic. After a few minutes, it turns uptempo and gets clear that they’re headed for the Basis ending to wrap up the show. Frog Legs is standard.

Highlights: Astronaut (1), Basis (2*), Munchkin