December 02, 2017

Waves has a pretty straightforward jam. Not a lot novel going on here. Let’s Dance begins with some mediocre jamband jamming. However, as they get into a more uptempo dance jam, this becomes really nice. The band looks into a great groove, and Magner here has some really interesting play with a nice array of lead patches. The majority of the Abyss jam is forgettable. However, when Allen switches to the e-kick, he starts incorporating a bunch of e-drums, and this becomes really cool before the switch to Humu. The jam out of Humu is a light, airy jam that has a very laid-back vibe to it. Perfect for listening to on the beach, I suppose. This is shorter than I would like, as they could have had something really phenomenal if they just stretched this out. Instead, they prematurely head into Don. Don jam is fine, if forgettable.

Robots first jam gets dark and gritty, although most of this does nothing for me. They develop this plodding sound around the 13-minute mark that’s almost a march, but it feels like dissonance for the sake of dissonance. Shem-Rah has some good initial communication between Marc and Barber, although the theme they settle on is nothing to write home about. Around the 11-minute mark, the band settles into a new theme. This is mostly okay, though a lot of it just feels like treading water until they get to the Morph ending. Most of this Triumph jam is completely forgettable and the slide back into Robots is pretty painful. The last Robots jam is chaotic and frenetic, but I actually think this works okay. I’m not normally into Robots ending jams, but this one has the right balance of cacophony and energy.

Highlights: Let’s Dance, Abyss, Robots (2)