June 03, 2016

The first HDPF jam is predictable as usual. The second jam actually has some legs for a change, and while it doesn’t necessarily reach highlight levels, it’s at least better than usual. Looking at the setlist, I won’t lie that Cater > Story > Pillar looks like about 40 minutes of boring, midtempo music that sounds like a billion jams that they’ve played before. Obviously I always reserve judgment until I hear the actual jams, but these are two songs they wind up getting stuck in the same sorts of jams with, until they hit their stride in the Pillar ending. So how did it play out? Welp. Caterpillar has about a 15-minute long, meandering midtempo jam. Story, unsurprisingly, has another 7-minute, midtempo funk jam, like a billion other midtempo funk jams ever. What an absolute shock. You can skip this entire first set.

Dribble first jam is actually pretty solid throughout. I’m generally not a big 1st Dribble fan, and I think they rarely get all that interesting. With that said, this one has some really nice parts, and Magner’s leads are generally good throughout this jam. I think this stretches on quite a bit longer than it needed to, but it could be worse, I suppose. Second Dribble jam doesn’t do much for me. There are parts where they sound like they might get interesting, but then they move on pretty quickly. The SRB jam, on the other hand, is great from the getgo. The early parts of the jam are a little more typical for a Shem-Rah jam. Darker sounding, spacey, four-on-the-floor jamming. Magner has some great patches here, using his sort of electronic xylophone patch to great effect. Around the 13:30 mark, they venture into major key territory. They build a really solid foundation here. Barber’s minimalist playing really helps flesh this thing out, and Magner develops an absolutely beautiful theme around the 15-minute mark. He continues to expand the theme, playing off the progression that Brownstein and Barber have been building. This is pure Blissco, and is absolutely the jam of the night. Can they just play these jams for an entire show sometime? Please? Anyway, they usually have an issue leaving a really solid Blissco jam. This is not the case this time. They transition into a solid, minor key jam. They stumble for a little bit, but around the 22-minute mark, they re-find their footing, and land on a very solid build toward the ending of Shem-Rah. This is not nearly as good as the Blissco jam preceding it, but still very good on its own.

DTTB has a more jambandy sounding jam. Piano instead of synth, and a little bit simpler as far as the progression as well. This isn’t necessarily bad here, but I don’t find it all that interesting either. This is good if you’re really into this sound, I suppose. I do think they build this in a really solid way. The portion before they drop into Sound One is pretty solid, and a nice build to a peak, which is at least nice. RLH intro is good, but not nearly enough time to develop here, and they basically turn it into a Tricycle jam almost immediately. Meh.

Highlights: Shem-Rah Boo**