December 31, 2015

Take out the Tron jam and this is otherwise a fairly nondescript show. The reputation this show has (and its setlist!) made me expect a lot more than what I got. It has its moments: 7-11 enters the lysergic redzone pretty early on and holds you there, and Spaga's about as good as 22 minutes of mostly type 1 jamming can be. Otherwise, it's clear how much they were holding their fire for Tron. Everything's competently rendered, but little else held my interest.

Honestly, can you blame them? The Tron jam is incredible more often than not, and you have to admire the risk-taking to bring the movie jam concept back after 14 years. It's also interesting hearing this in a post- 5th Element Jam world, which I can safely conclude is inferior to this one. IMO, some of it is that mid-late 2010s Biscuits were simply more inclined towards atmospheric jamming than they are in the Space Opera era. In either case, it's the only essential must-hear in this show. It just so happens it's an essential must-hear in general.

Kind of hard to rate a show that is really Just Kinda There except for a serious career highlight, but I'm saying a 3.5. 4 seems a little too generous, and 3 seems a little too uncharitable.

Lai begins with a pretty generic jambandy jam. 7-11 first jam is a pretty typical type 1 jam, with nothing novel to say. Second jam begins with a pretty typical trance jam, but around the 14-15-minute mark, they embark on a major key build/peak that turns out really, really nicely. I would say as a general rule I’m not a huge fan of Shelby jams. With that said, near the end of this one, there are some really cool things going on texturally that add a really interesting dimension to the jam. I like this, maybe just for that aspect. The City is…fine. I love Shelby’s peak. Not this particular Shelby, just that guitar riff in general. Love it.

I did not care for this HAB jam. Let me rephrase: I liked the jam, and thought it had potential. I did not like that they cut it way, way short and jumped into the HAB ending after just 3 minutes. The first minute or so the Helix jam has a lot of potential, but they get stuck in this very repetitive rhythm that just doesn’t do much for me, where they’re really hitting the first and second beats hard. This is one of those “repeater” jams that they fall into sometimes that I just could not care less about. Feeling Twisted turns into basically a long PBR intro jam. Brownstein hits the bassline about 6 minutes too early. No patience here, though the rest of the jam is not great anyhow. PBR has a drawn out type 1 jam that doesn’t really go anywhere. Both Spaga jams leave me wanting more, although the end of the second jam gets really neat immediately prior to the Spaga return.

The concept of an improvised movie score is still such a cool idea to me, and I will never not think that. For the Tron jam, I’ve used the following timestamps for the purposes of each “jam”:

Tron Jam (0:00-12:40) Tron Jam 2 (12:40-19:21) Tron Jam 3 (19:21-21:21) Tron Jam 4 (21:21-27:54) Tron Jam 5 (27:54-36:14) Tron Jam 6 (36:14-43:17) Tron Jam 7 (43:17-50:11) Tron Jam 8 > Helicopters

The first jam begins with a from-nothing four-on-the-floor jam. Around the 7:45 mark, the band hits on a really cool theme, complete with echoing arps from Magner ringing out amidst Allen’s e-drum effects. Barber hits on a great minimalist riff here that works really well. This isn’t too far outside the box by any means, but it’s really well-played, and a nice little theme. The second jam begins with a very subdued breakbeat jam. I’m not in love with this theme. The third jam begins with some spacey major key playing from Barber, along with the angel choir patch from Magner. This ambient, space section carries on for a few minutes, which is phenomenal. I wish they gave more jams a chance to breathe this much. The fourth jam is a kind of slowed down DNB. This portion is just alright. However, around the 24-minute mark, they cut to half-time, and get into a great psychedelic downtempo jam. I think Magner and Barber balance each other really well here. Brownstein develops a multi-chord bassline that creates an overall dark vibe to this jam that hasn’t really been present throughout this jam thus far. Doesn’t last as long as I’d like, but given the subject matter it’s quite fitting. The fifth jam immediately has some wonderful chords from Magner. Again, they start by breaking down to nothing. Magner comes up with this neat 3-note descending riff and Barber immediately latches on to this. It feels like they’re about to come back in with a great theme, but they ditch this for some odd reason. Regrettable. Instead, they shift back to a minor key, and the plodding four-on-the-floor beat returns. This turns into a somewhat generic dance jam. The sixth jam begins with a VI-VII-I progression from the entire band. This always creates so much tension, and it’s a standby the band relies on as a crutch, but for good reason. It’s basically impossible for Barber and Magner to play anything in this progression that doesn’t sound good. This seventh jam sounds a lot like Fanfare for the Common Man in parts, particularly from Magner. This doesn’t do a ton for me. However, the final jam, which is ultimately basically a Helix jam, is solid. The Highwire encore is standard.

Highlights: 7-11 (2), Shelby, Tron (1*, 3**, 4, 6*, 8)