edited to add~ i knew peck and i would have slightly opposing reviews! :LOL:
ok, now that i\'ve caught up on some sleep, here\'s a little review...
the opening space city>jam could also be named the \'where\'d my monitor go?!\' jam. all was apparently fine until the lights went down. then tim\'s monitor crapped out. a nice little jazz-fusion-ish jam got going as sound men and roadies alike scampered around. eventually things got fixed and they were off!
tunage was a shredding note-fest, as most of y\'all know by now. the crowd was moving by the beginning of the jam, but by the time they dropped into gravity i saw sweat on faces already! a guy i\'d struck up a coversation with pre-show (who was there to see the openers, but had decided to stick around for B\'fast) turned around wide-eyed, fist ready to be dapped, "dude, you didn\'t say it was gonna be like THAT!"... i love hearing/seeing that reaction out of first show-ers!
gravity is by far my favorite spears bassline! also, i really like the lightness the tune brings. i mean, at the beginning of this jam, tim was making a very bubbly delay-pedal infused effervescence. the *complete* opposite of psygn, for instance. and i think its great that they have both the light and the dark in their bag, man. this one took a little while to get up to the rage-ocity of tunage, but after matt\'s initial solo things really picked up.
i will say this, to my ears, matt sounded off during the first set. not talking trash, just sounded like the newest member of a band who\'s other members have been playing for two millenia now... second set is an entirely different story, but i\'ll get there in a bit. in his defense, he very well could have been distracted by drumsticks girl in the front row or the two bossom-y ladies against the wall to his left. again, he wasn\'t awful or anything, just seemed a bit off for the first set.
escher\'s part one was played very well and was very pretty, and imagine our surprise when mayfly dropped instead of part two! hells yeah!! this got the crowd ragin\' as mayfly is wont to do! at the end-ish of it i mentioned to peck that that was the first song i ever saw these boys play and it was hard not to be hooked. i\'d say that other folks there had similiar experiences last night. i actually thought it was a decent version, but nothing best ever. of course, right as i was coming to that decision, they hit a peak that made the whole crowd whoo hoo in unison, so what do i know?! :lol:
at this point they took a set break. i thought they could use one, as the energy in mayfly seemed a little low, but i also think that a setbreak at 12:30 or so probably isn\'t the best idea, especially on a weeknight. the place was full for the whole first set and
maybe half-full for the second. of course, everyone who was still around were way into it, but still, when they first got back on stage there were only about five people there and it slowly filled up some more after. i wonder, however, if this is something the band has a choice in, or are they booked to play two sets and aren\'t allowed to make the game-time switch. i dunno.
what i do know is that rufus to open the second set was freakin\' huge! especially by the end with adrian beating the ever-livin\'-bejeesus outta his kit!! i also know that at that point i wasn\'t paying any attention to anyone else on stage but ad! unreal! but the whole jam was really big, and even surprisingly so considering the drop in attendance. apparently rufus was gonna be big full room or half-full room! so, rock on! oh, and somewhere in there tim had a friggin\' guitar clinic, where everyone else got quiet and he did his thing! that man\'s hands....
after a brief call to all drummers in the room to meet chad by the soundboard, matt picked up good things and tim started singing. it was gorgeous and quite possibly my favorite version ever. i liked the stripped down, piano heavy intimacy and then the solos from matt and tim were heart rending! adrian sat back down to finish off the tune with a cymbal wash and i was all about some matt!
they knew they had dropped the energy a bit (though in a very, very good way) with good things and so leapt right back into it with a high energy wtf. i know it says one nation tease, but this was a large tease where it got played instead of, like, verse two! it was great, the place got hoppin\' again and matt simply shone! he really impressed me from this point on. i mean *really*! i can\'t wait to hear it again...
i was running to the bar/restroom when i heard adrian start up the grand scheme drumline. i passed stevie and said are they doing this now (as it was getting a bit late) and he said \'sounds like it!\'. i took care of all business quickly so as not to miss anything! and that was smart. TONS of energy, tightly played and triumphant, scheme was great! again, matt was all over it, but adrian again stole the show. i was standing behind the drummer from the opening band. during adrian\'s solo, he stood there, sorta nodding his head like, \'yeah, i could do that... i could do that..." but then mr. drumatrono got to the climax of his solo, his hands and sticks blurred into oblivion and dude in front of me just threw up his hands and literally said aloud, \'i\'ll NEVER be THAT good!!\' i clapped him on the back and said, \'how\'d you like that?!\' he looked back in such a way as to say that he both loved and hated that, actually... :lol:
tim jumped back onstage and leapt into jumping jack flash instead of the end of scheme. at this point they had to be completely ouit of time and flash is one of the few songs in their repetoire that automatically starts with and maintains the level of energy needed to match ad\'s drum solo! it was either that or attraction to shade, i felt, and since more of the crowd knew flash, it was an easy call for them, i guess. i still wish they\'d pick some more obscure/less cheesy covers, but so be it. the crowd seemed to get into it and that\'s all that matters, i guess...
so, overall, a great night was had! explosive jams, gorgeous sincerity, big smiles and tons of fun coming off the stage... after seeing the last trio show and thinking that they had finally figured it out and truly didn\'t need a keyboard player, BOY what a difference mr awestriker makes!! pushes tim to get out of his comfort zones, syncopates with ron and adrian, has that infectious ear to ear grinning thing going on... let\'s just get these guys out infront of the world and the rest will take care of itself (with proper help from management, of course
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