November 18, 2017

Sweating Bullets soundcheck is a neat addition to this show, but standard. Opening jam is fine, but nothing to write home about, and the Bionic Helix to follow is…an interesting choice, as is the Big Happy followed by IRW. I’d be frustrated to see this show, to be honest. First HDPF jam is a typical type 1 jam. Most of the 2nd jam is pretty same-y, though I enjoyed most of it.

Spectacle has a short intro jam featuring Norwegian Wood teases. Opening I-Man jam is short, forgettable. First jam has a great groove, and some nice stuff from Magner, even if this is always very solidly in type 1 territory. Funny stuff when Magner accidentally hits the Caterpillar button. Second jam gets very cool, although as they get closer to the return to I-Man they clearly can’t figure out what to do and basically just have everybody bail out rather than returning naturally. Meh. The last jam is not awful, but never really gets room to breathe much outside the type 1 confines of the ending jam. The Crickets first jam develops a wonderful Blissco theme, led by Barber’s peaceful little riff. I think they get away from the Blissco theme a little too quickly, but I still generally enjoy most of this jam. The jam out of Lunar is the typical dub jam followed by a forgettable dance jam (Magner has a neat SRB ending tease at one point). Crickets peak is as is to be expected. Same Ol’ G has a bunch of modified jamband lyrics. Meh. Floes is fine, but nothing really noteworthy here. First RLH jam is way too short to be notable. The second jam is entirely forgettable, and while the third is some nice Blissco, it is too short and a little too vanilla. Encore is standard.

Highlights: HDPF (2), I-Man (2), Crix (1)