The first few minutes of the Mulberry’s jam are marked by some meandering, noodly stuff, primarily from Barber. Around the 10-minute mark, the band sort of resets and takes things down a notch in terms of intensity. This eventually turns into an uptempo dance jam. Most of the band is passable here, though Barber’s incessant use of the siren is borderline obnoxious. Just chill, dude. The jam out of Abyss is a lot of treading water. The band sometimes has an impressive ability to play without saying anything at all. Shimmy is not awful, but it’s not great either. The Tempest switch can be felt from a million miles away, also. The jam back into Shimmy out of Tempest falls into about the same trap. This is passable, nothing special Biscuits.

Neither the first nor the second I-Man jam does much for me. The second one at least reflects the band trying to create some solid Blissco, even if it’s in the confines of the I-Man type 1 ending jam. Caterpillar features a very boring midtempo funk jam. At one point it sounds like Magner is teasing Life During Wartime. I’ve heard that he does this to annoy Barber when he feels like the jam is getting boring. Well sir, well struck. I Feel Love is the same story as the rest of this show. Just a lot of treading water with nothing interesting to say. Middle jam in Orch Theme is the same, and there is no outro from Orch Theme. Not gonna lie, but after a painfully bad show, HPDF > HAB (end) to end a show is frustrating to listen to. First HDPF jam is about as standard as it gets. The second jam is literally the first time in this show I’ve found myself interested by what’s going on. Magner jumps on the pan flute for part of this, and they do a great job of crafting the ominous, uneasy feeling that by definition should accompany every HDPF 2 jam. Home Again encore is mediocre at absolute best.

Highlights: HDPF (2*)

January 13, 2018

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