April 29, 2017

Really like LBB from the mid-point onwards. terrific trippy power pop jam with Brownie laying down great carpet and Magner keeping it psychedelic. The transition into Loose Change is great, an original approach to a tune that hadn't seen the stage in 7 years. excellent show. Had the pleasure of having seats in one of the side balconies...so much fun.

Papercut’s jam is alright. It gets into AC2B territory way, way too soon. The jam out of AC2B is short, but effective. They land in a solid trance groove nearly immediately, and it features Magner with some solid ascending arps and subsequent leads. The lead he hits at 7:17 is so fantastic, and has this dark, mysterious feel to it that has an almost Middle-Eastern vibe to it. The jam out of Tempest has another solid dance jam in it. Around the 6:50 mark, Barber hits on this neat little riff that’s just sort of filling out the edges of the jam, and his tone is great. This is exactly where I want him, and Magner slides in to the top end with some neat synths to balance out the sound, including some washes and sweeps that fit perfectly. They switch to more of a major key sound around the 9-minute mark, which I normally love, but would have been nice for them to continue the prior theme. Regardless, the major key jam turns out to be pretty solid on its own. This almost feels like it’s headed for B&C, and has a great Blissco theme. The second AC2B jam has a neat, airy feel to it. Magner has some nice moments here, though they feel a little all over the place in terms of the themes, as though they can’t decide on what to do. I think this could have been great, but I don’t think this really lands. Incidentally, the peak itself is actually pretty solid. The first 4 minutes or so of the Confro jam are generic upbeat funk. Around the 9-minute mark they venture toward major key territory, but it’s pretty short-lived, and within a minute or so, they’re back into a minor key. Shame. The jam into Rock Candy gets good, but only for a minute or two before the switch. The jam out of Rock Candy is pretty good. This has a lot of piano and more of a classic “jamband” sound to it, but it works pretty well.

The I-Man jam begins the second set with a nice dance jam. Magner is using a lot of really resonant synth leads, which provides a great rhythmic texturing effect. This crescendos into a fantastic uplifting jam. The first verse ends with no jam, which I’ll take over the usual one-minute bridge jam. The second verse has a short jam with a lot of piano, and this doesn’t accomplish much. The second jam (after the third verse) has a few minutes of mediocrity, then suddenly the band changes gears. They switch keys and increase tempo significantly in an obvious shift toward Cyclone. They hit a four-chord progression around the 24-minute mark that’s nothing novel, but it fits here really well. Cyclone is okay. They hit a Munchkin ending fakeout, which turns quickly into Boop instead. Boop first jam is typical funk fare. The second jam is a pretty straightforward fast trance jam, but it kept my head bobbing back and forth. Marc has some interesting atypical basslines here, including some chords, which is unusual for him in a dance jam. Around the 15-minute mark, they transition into a more happy-go-lucky sound. They cut down to half-time for the transition to the Loose Change track. The end of the Boop track and beginning of the Loose Change track are Blissco in my mind, and even though it feels like the transition into Loose Change drags a bit, my suspicion is that they just really loved this groove; it’s hard not to. That said, the transition into the actual composition of Loose Change is so smooth that you almost don’t realize what’s been happening until it’s already being sung. Fantastic stuff. Loose Change has a fairly mundane and boring jam in its “middle.” The jam out of Loose Change begins with an immediate push to a higher tempo. Around the 16-minute mark, the band hits on a nice dance theme. Magner has some really nice dissonant leads. I like this section a lot, and almost feels like this is a creepy cousin of Rock Candy, given Magner’s lead and the band’s overall vibe. At the 18-minute mark they do a near-full band dropout-back-to-build, which I think works really well. They keep a similar vibe, while progressing to a more piano-led jam. At one point, they basically have a Ladies peak fakeout, still with Magner on piano. This is really great, and makes me think a ripping Ladies peak with piano could be solid. The I-Man ending jam is the typical type 1 ending jam. The Buddha encore literally has like a 90-second jam. Ultra meh.

Highlights: AC2B (1), Tempest*, Rock Candy, I-Man (Intro, 2), Boop (2*), Loose Change (2*)

First reworked Loose change of the modern era, and surprised us all. Vvnb