December 28, 2018

The Basis intro jam is very good. Barber creates the riff that serves as the basis for this jam (no pun intended) while noodling around pre-show, and the rest of the band slowly joins in. They craft a thoughtful and patient jam here, and it pays off very well. The Basis middle jam is really interesting as well, and Barber’s phrasing and playing in general are absolutely great here. He sounds like a different guitarist here than the oft-flubbing and fumbling guitarist I’ve heard butcher fat too many a peak. This is great stuff. The first Crystal Ball jam is a pretty predictable type 1 jam. The jam out of Crystal Ball is a laid back two-chord jam that features Magner on a Rhodes-esque patch. This jam is a perfect example of why it’s so important that the band jam into and out of songs in unusual places. This turns into a very unique jam, and has an almost lullaby-like quality to it. This is truly wonderful, and probably doesn’t happen if they’re not jamming into the middle of Basis. Beautiful, beautiful Blissco, baby. The Basis jam begins with several minutes of ominous four-on-the-floor jamming that sounds like it could be laying groundwork for something more sinister. However, the evil never seems to come, and for the most part this jam just never leads anywhere all that interesting. Stone > Waltz is standard.

Hope’s jam begins with a DNB jam that really goes nowhere for seven full minutes. Around the 14:30 mark, the band mostly breaks down to near-nothing, with the exception of rolling toms from Allen and repeated single-notes from Barber and Magner. This eventually leads to a half-time jam as the band prepares to switch to Highwire. The rest of this jam doesn’t do a whole lot for me. The Highwire jam starts as a four-on-the-floor jam, and initially doesn’t catch my interest all that much. Around the 12-minute mark Magner starts using his plucky xylophone-y synth, and adds in a haunting lead on top. This is very cool. They pick up the pace and continue to build in intensity, and Magner remains the star of this jam for quite a while. Around the 18-minute mark the band has hit Hope speed, and Barber has a choice couple of riffs that feel ripe for repeating. Barber teases the DTTB ending, but ultimately winds up at the ending of Hope. The first 7-11 jam just never really develops into anything interesting for me. The second jam is fantastic. The first several minutes are a solid trance jam, then the band drops to half-time and explores a very interesting, spacey dub jam. Awesome stuff. Haleakala Crater is just a pretty, pretty song. The Floes jam is not bad, but not all that interesting either.

Highlights: Basis (Intro, 2), Crystal Ball (2**), Highwire, 7-11 (2*)