November 22, 2019

Memphis is somewhat forgettable, but not necessarily bad. The second jam is definitely better than the first, but that’s generally a given for me. The first RLH has some interesting themes that they touch on, but doesn’t feel like it really gets off the ground. However, leaving RLH toward Ape is phenomenal. They get locked into a groove that you can’t help but nod your head to. This is one of those jams that makes people realize why Marc’s head is a perpetual bobblehead on stage. I don’t care at all about the Ape jam. HAB and honestly just feels like an ending jam from almost the beginning of the jam. These Jigsaw jams are not terribly interesting to me. Not great, not terrible. At the beginning of the Story track, you can hear somebody yell “I LOVE drum solos!” I disagree, sir. Story has a nice little groove to it, and Magner is really on point, especially as they pick up speed. This is the first time I’ve heard Anthem; I assume the composition ends with the big peaky riff Barber plays, and that the spacey, ambient jam is not part of the composition. If so, the Anthem jam is sick. I wish they were okay taking things down this low more frequently because this is really interesting stuff. After they pick up the drumbeat again, they lock in on a very Magner-centric jam. Lots of awesome synthplay and e-drums from Allen. I’m not totally clear if there’s a “Tractorbeam jam” in here, but it’s really cool whatever it is. I’ve also never heard Rocket Science, but this composition is much more obvious. The jam out is pretty clearly headed for Story from the beginning, but it’s decent.

Highlights: RLH (2), Story, Anthem

MEMPHIS>extended intro into RLH is pure Barber fire!