February 05, 2021

Show starts out with barber noodling the MEMPHIS intro then the band comes in and rages for traditional long winded jam. The jam moves into rapture which many were glad to see back in rotation. The transition into hero is great. You can tell they been practicing and have big plans for these new style instrumentals. They took this hero for a real ride and segue into inverted Lai. At this point the band seems very focused which is a good spot for them to be for the rest of the set. The drop into is bionic helix is sick af and perfect for the set up of a confrontation end.

Set 2 packs the same matching energy. Starts with the dyslexic finale (beg) of confrontation into an evolved Rocket Science. Pay attention to how they’ve developed these new jams. The band has really grown over the last year since these debuted. They’re really flowing now as they enter the last sequence of Spraypaint> voices > helicopters > victory.

Everyone was on The ball. Great way to start out the year. Set 1 definitely my highlite and one of those sets you listen all the way thru imo.

Memphis first jam is the typical meandering Barber shred fest. Not for me. Second jam has a great groove, and really interesting playing from Magner. This isn’t anything too outside of the box, but it’s very solid and has great atmosphere. Rapture has a long type 1 jam that is basically them just riffing on the main Rapture theme for quite a while. There is a “middle” jam here in Bionic Helix that is okay. I could see why somebody might really like this, but for me they never really get outside of Bionic Helix. Like…it sort of feels like this is one long composition in some ways. I’m not sure. The jam out of Bionic into Confrontation just doesn’t have long enough to breathe.

Confrontation jam just doesn’t move the needle for me at all. The Rocket Science jam has a nice thematic jam that’s got a happy-go-lucky melody from Magner littered throughout. This is nothing amazing, but it’s solid and kept me intrigued throughout. However, after they finish this theme, they drop to almost nothing and build back up from a drumless jam. This portion is absolutely beautiful and my favorite of the night. The jam out of Spraypaint gets super digital and cool. This is dance party central, and turns into a techno Voices intro. Cool. Voices has a neat little dance jam coming out of it as well. Unfortunately, the last half of this is incredibly boring as they head to Helix. The Helix jam has some great sidechain-y bass from Brownstein. This is nice and dancy.

Highlights: Memphis (2), Rocket Science**, Spraypaint*, Helix