January 26, 2014

Caterpillar begins with a midtempo jam led by texturing arps from Magner, and filled out by some nice phrasing from Barber. Allen has an array of e-drum effects here that are placed really nicely. Barber’s riff around the 6:40 mark is this nice little call-and-effect thing for several bars, and I like it a lot. Around 9:45 they switch keys and make the somewhat obvious change toward Abyss’ ending. This is wonderful Blissco stuff, although it feels a little bit like cheating as they’re basically just vamping on the Abyss ending without adding the second chord. They keep this theme for 3 minutes, and while I wish they’d have done something more interesting with this than simply resolve to Abyss, this is really great nonetheless. After over 8 minutes of Abyss (this is way too long for a 2-part song, guys), they drop into a house jam featuring a lot of e-drums, and they lock into a great groove. This almost reminds me of some space disco with Magner’s arps providing a nice offbeat rhythm to push the jam forward. This could have been much longer before headed to Tricycle, but that’s just because it’s a really nice jam. The Tricycle jam is near non-existent before they head toward a fairly obvious Orch Theme intro jam. The first Orch jam features Brownstein teasing Tricycle, then Buddha. After they ditch these teases, what results is a fairly straightforward jam. This is not bad, but nothing remarkable either. Honestly, this is what I’d typically expect from an Orch Theme first jam. Second Orch Theme jam is again a pretty straightforward jam. Magner’s octave melody is not altogether interesting, and it lasts a little too long here. I don’t think much of the rest of this jam is all that interesting, though the Caterpillar peak/ending is very well done.

The jam out of Ladies is filled with arpeggiators and features Barber using a wahwah pedal to create a very atmospheric effect. I swear at one point I hear a tease from a Castlevania 2 song, but that seems like it would be far too obscure. Around 8:30 the band speeds up noticeably, and develops a nice four-chord progression. Barber’s tone here is gorgeous, and they build this effortlessly. Love it. Rock Candy begins with a very deliberate and thematic jam from the band. While it’s clear the band is connecting and communicating well, I don’t find what they’re playing all that interesting. At the 8:00 mark they change the theme up. This is a much more rhythmic dance jam and Barber’s arpeggios echo out in a way that provide a nice psychedelic effect. A few moments later, the band switches things up again into a more Blissco-y theme, and this honestly sounds like it’s headed for an Abyss ending again somehow for a moment, or at another moment maybe a Confrontation ending. This ultimately turns into an absolutely beautiful theme. They transition from this gorgeous theme into the Ladies ending in such a totally natural way that it almost doesn’t even feel like they’ve changed until you realize they’ve been playing Ladies for a full minute. The jam out of Buddha begins with a Disco Inferno tease from Brownstein. After a minute or so, Allen starts doing this e-kick on the 1 every 2 measures. It sounds almost out of sync by like a 64th note or something. Magner and Barber have such similar tone here that it’s hard to differentiate what each is doing — in a great way. The net effect is a swirling sound that is danceable and very interesting all at once. They create a really nice jam, although it’s cut somewhat short as they eventually just start playing Lunar Pursuit. Lunar has the typical dub jam, and I don’t find this section as meandering as a lot of their dub jams tend to be. Around the 9-minute Mark Allen drops the four-on-the-floor beat and Magner lays down a neat little arp. This develops into a very digital jam that gets increasingly more interesting as they get closer to Buddha. The Basis intro is not all that interesting, at least insofar as Basis intros go. There’s a short 2-minute jam in the middle of Basis. This isn’t bad, but it’s more of just an extended middle section. The Basis 3rd jam develops into a very solid groove. This isn’t anything too outside the box, but it’s really solid nonetheless. Mr. Don has a dub jam, followed by a very deliberate Confrontation jam by the entire band. I don’t find much of the Doncore all that interesting, but a solid way to end the night.

Highlights: Caterpillar, Abyss, Ladies*, Rock Candy*, Buddha, Lunar, Basis (3)