March 08, 2018

This installment of the Nowhere Jam is fantastic, although a little light on variation. I love the slow build, particularly how it warms up from sounding very jamband-y (which unlike the wise Treemaculate, I’m not always opposed to) into something that is so unmistakably Biscuits. Still, I wonder how this translated in the audience's experience as I think some passages particularly in the mid-tempo middle section would’ve gotten tedious. I often find Strobelights jams to be formless and meandering, and I definitely do here. Barber noodles over the e-drums but never settles on anything I find all that compelling. While the landing into Gangster works pretty well, the Gangster jam is similarly formless until Magner rather insistently grabs it and shoves it into digital territory. I Remember When was a nice curveball; I’ll never complain about Magner pulling out the flute patches.

Shem starts off rough and meanders quite a bit, but in the last two minutes gathers into an impressive thundercloud. Magner’s little riff here is very vaporwave-sounding in a good way, and I wish they’dve milked it a little longer before plunging into Waves. The Waves jam is pretty standard issue fare, only breaking into something interesting as it slows down and Wagner busts out the squiggly noises. The theme they explore while building back towards the Shem return had some potential, but it gets stuck until Magner forces a peak with some big piano chords. The re-entry into Shem is way smoother than anything in the first Shem segment, although the return itself doesn’t aspire to much beyond being competently executed (which, to be fair, still does count for something) The Confrontation jam opens on a wonderful, dark electronic throb but peters out just as it gets interesting. The Crickets peak is incredibly by the books, and the jam itself occupies a weird 1.5 territory for the bulk of its duration. Brownie subtly changes the bassline while Magner solos. It’s not bad, but it’s a little awkward. So it is for the rest of the show. Air Song noodles and nods and before you know it, we’re back at Confrontation again. Mr. Don doesn’t offer much outside the box as an encore, but it has a little more life than the back half of the second set.

This show came highly recommended, but it seems quite overhyped to me. Magner seems to be the only one who is totally “on” for this show, maybe Allen. Pluck out the Nowhere Jam and very little else memorable remains. 3 stars, but maybe I’ll change my mind on a future relisten.

The Nowhere Jam is being split into three separate jams for the purposes of my listening:

0:00 – 10:00: DTTB-y Jam 10:00 – 17:30: Tron-y Jam 17:30 – 31:26: Strobelights Jam

The DTTB-y Jam bored me for nearly the entirety. Around the 7-minute mark, they began building an artificial peak, and this pulled me back in completely. The peak here was very well-done, and this is a solid reminder that this band can take you places musically even if they were pushing you away completely just moments before. The Tron-y Jam is amazing. Magner begins this with a remarkably wonderful melody. This slow, patient melody is evocative of Vangelis or some other atmospheric, retro electronic sound. When the beat finally drops at 14:30, Magner continues to allow this melody to evolve very naturally. This is so great; please give me more of this kind of jam all the time. The last jam is basically a long Strobelights intro/transition jam. This is well played, even if it’s nowhere near as cool as the jam which preceded it.

The first couple minutes of the Strobelights jam are pretty mundane. Around the 7-minute mark, Allen starts incorporating e-drums, and Magner comes in with a very resonant lead synth. I think Magner and Barber have some nice interplay here, and this is one of those jams where Barber just sort of sits in the pocket, evolving his minimal riff over time. Around the 11-minute mark, they shift into a more subdued sounding jam. At 12:30, Allen drops the e-kick, and the band increases the tempo noticeably. Magner’s synths become plucky, singular notes that ring and echo out over the electronic vamp of the rhythm section, with Barber still content playing rhythm guitar to this jam. Somewhere around the 15-minute mark, this morphs into a more happy-sounding jam. This morphs before the listener’s ears from a pretty typical trance jam into a Blissco jam effortlessly. Wonderful stuff. This builds into a joyful explosion of energy from Magner (piano) and Barber (soaring guitar) before resolving into Gangster. Phenomenal stuff. Sidenote: I generally don’t care about the compositions of the songs all that much. However, playing Gangster with the e-kick in effect during the beginning is great and should be how it’s always played. The first minute of the Gangster jam has Magner playing this bouncing riff that is really, really cool. I’m not sure what exactly Aron ate on this day, but he should probably eat it every day they have a show. This is interesting and unique. Barber comes in with a complementary riff, and Allen shifts gears with the addition of e-drums. The overall effect is a very digital sounding jam that scratches my itches in a major way. Around the 12:30 mark, Magner hits the piano, and the band begins the long transition toward I Remember When. I don’t dislike this portion of the jam, but this is a much generic jamband sound, and not necessarily what I listen to this band for. IRW is standard.

The SRB jam goes nowhere and does nothing. Not a whole lot to say here. As they get closer to Waves, I think this gets very marginally more interesting, but that’s a pretty low bar. The first several minutes of the Waves jam are boring as well. Around the 14:30 mark, the band shifts to a half-time jam. This has some interesting sounds to it. I wish they’d have done some more exploring of this theme, but they eventually speed back up, and what they settle on is frankly quite a bit less interesting. The Confrontation jam begins with Magner playing some big sweeps over the top, though he promptly adds in an arp as well. Magner is all over this jam, with creative playing and interesting patch sounds as well. This is fairly inside-the-box playing, but is solid regardless. The Crickets jam features Magner doing some soloing for the first few minutes. I couldn’t care less about this, but after the show he’s had already, frankly he’s earned the right to do whatever he wants, so there’s that. This develops into another jambandy jam, and Magner abuses the Rhodes patch quite a bit here. The Air Song jam doesn’t feel cohesive to me at all. Magner and Barber can’t decide who wants to do what, and eventually they settle in for a (somewhat forced) Confrontation ending. Banter has some nice joking around about whether Goldberg is Joe DiMaggio or Cal Ripken Jr. The Doncore doesn’t do anything interesting, and is mostly forgettable.

Highlighs: Nowhere Jam (1, 2**, 3), Strobelights**, Gangster*, Confrontation