May 29, 2021

Another well regarded show that left me kinda cold. Nothing’s outright bad, but not a lot seemed worthy of repeat listening. The setlist—an offering of, shall we say, finger sandwiches—was fun but at times the show seemed boxed in by the conceit. I could see this being an absolute blast IRL though (especially summer 2021, when folks were lucky to get anything at all).

The first set all but makes explicit how much M80 sounds like Gangster. The opening jam is probably my favorite part of the night (minus the encore). I didn’t care for most of the rest of the sequence. Barber seems out of step a lot of the time. It doesn’t help that his tone in 2021 sounds so shrill in the SBDs. The Astronaut triple-decker is on average much better. The jams all hover in the trance-adjacent zone; even if Barber is at times on autopilot, it’s his most enjoyable style of autopilot. Some of the best moments, namely the first Astronaut jam and the Spacebird, are held together by great Allen-Aron interplay. The atmospheric break in Gangster is another great example.

The second set was at times downright boring. The TBeam centerpiece is the most interesting thing here, and it’s not all that interesting. The first Dusseldorf funk jam sounds like it came from a far inferior, more traditional jam band. The Abraxas jam isn’t half bad, but it’s just about over by the time it’s properly situated. Allen deserves all the credit, laying down a stuttering old school disco beat.

In spite of all that, we’re treated to a rare, satisfying standalone Crix encore. I don’t think this even does anything all that novel, but it has a sense of focus I found lacking in the rest of the show.

Maybe I’m crazy for giving this a 3, but most of the time the music was Just There. I can't see myself revisiting this one any time soon, but maybe someone will change my mind on it.