July 16, 2016

Pygmy begins with a more “rock” jam, and has a lot of Rock God Barber throughout. This doesn’t do much for me. Around 9:51 they resolve into a trance jam. This portion of the jam is far more digital and relies heavily on Allen’s use of an e-kick drum. This becomes less interesting as they get closer to the Humu transition, but up until that, it’s very nice. Humu’s jam begins with a psychedelic series of sounds from Magner, but the rest of the band is sort of just treading water. Around the 10:35 mark the band lands on an old standby, a VI-VII-I progression. This is not breaking any new ground here, but it’s really well-played and results in some cool Barber riffs. Brownstein starts the transition to Viola Lee Blues way, way, way too early. The Shelby jam begins with a fairly milquetoast DNB jam that doesn’t do much for me. Magner has some really neat lines here, but I think they’re somewhat lost amidst the monotonous bassline if Brownstein and meandering guitar lines of Barber. This turns into a decent peak, but the jam is forgettable. A 10-minute Boop seems a waste to me. The first jam is a really neat, if short, dark trance jam. Not sure this is worth re-listening, but it’s not awful. The second jam is the usual funk jam, and pretty boring.

Bullets has a very short jam that turns into a Minions intro jam after not too long. Minions has Brownstein playing a (sort of) tease of Viola Lee Blues. The rest of the jam is forgettable, and parts of it are downright bad. PBR is about the same. Down Under is a cool cover, but Barber is singing it in a weirdly low octave. White Lines is a less cool cover, and really hating that this set is fairly jamless.

Standalone KOTW is not for me. The first several minutes of Shimmy are pretty generic four-on-the-floor jamming. They change keys around the 15-minute mark and things get marginally more interesting. The Cyclone jam begins with a phenomenal spacey trance theme. This has such great intensity, and then it’s abruptly stopped by inclement weather. The band ultimately starts up from the same spot that they stopped, which is so ridiculously cool. Around the 3-minute mark, the band hits a gorgeous major key Blissco theme. The fact that they’re able to maintain this intensity while changing to a more upbeat, happy theme, is really impressive. Around the 6-minute mark they shift again, darker this time. The Basis inversion is neat, even if the intro jam is meh. The first 7-8 minutes of the Basis middle jam are boring, but around the 15-minute mark they get into a little bit more of an interesting theme. The Tricycle jam is nonexistent and basically drops back into Basis middle. The Basis jam here is fantastic. Magner has some great synth leads with this ghastly, detuned patch. Really neat stuff. The Shimmy peak is solid, and then they drop right into the Basis 2nd ending peak. Story encore is meh.

Highlights: Pygmy*, Humu, Cyclone**, Basis (2*)