March 25, 2016

Pygmy begins with a mediocre funk jam. When they finally get to Spraypaint they seem to have trouble committing, and it takes them a couple of attempts to finally get into the song. Spraypaint’s jam starts out with some similar sort of midtempo (maybe slightly faster) “funk,” and this isn’t terribly interesting either. They have some good rhythmic hits that the entire band is communicating on, but the content of the jam does not a whole lot for me. Then they end the jam with…Rainbow Song. One of my least favorite from their catalog, and this is a standard version. Meh.

Spectacle has a really pretty intro jam. Calling this Blissco seems unfair because it’s a pretty standard thing they do, but this is very pretty nonetheless. It is pretty weird that Magner does a “3 Blind Mice” tease. What a weird thing to tease. Helix has a great jam. Very digital. Awesome arpwork from Magner, e-drums from Allen, and Barber does a great job fitting into the right places here. My favorite jam of the night, by a large margin.

The Dribble intro jam here is really cool. This is a slowed-down, happy little improv. Blissco-adjacent, I’ll call it. Not reinventing the wheel here, but I like this a lot. The second jam doesn’t do much for me, and neither does Crystal Ball’s type 1. Highwire > She’s a Bad Mama Jama also does nothing for me. The jam out of Dribble goes to some really cool places. Magner messes around with a square wave in some interesting/eerie ways, and Allen is using a lot of e-drums here. I like this a lot. The jam in Orch never gets outside the song’s main theme all that much, and the jam out and back into Highwire doesn’t do it for me. Frog Legs encore is standard.

Highlights: Spectacle, Helix**, Dribble (Intro, Outro*)