Show no.10 from the 2022 American Tour.April 24th 2022 - Live at the Alex Madonna Expo Center in San Louis Obispo, CA, USA.The band gives an absolutely blistering and evolutionary performance at SLO.
Highly recommended tape for people wanting a solid early 2022 show.
The previous shows of this tour are quite interesting because while the band is going through the motions of updated setlists.
(with a slight emphasis on
K.G./
L.W., and soon to be released:
Omnium Gatherum material)
There is a slow emergance of jam elements that would later go on to define their larger sound later in the tour and onwards.
It seems like many of the staples they used to play just like the studio versions, now have to be relearned and somtimes that comes with some expansions.
This show to me, is a key example of that force at play, as it contains two particularly brave extended jam versions that was nothing like we had heard before.
Those extended songs being
The River and
Slow Jam 2, and the explorations on both elevate this tape from most of the earlier 2022 shows in my opinion.
Robot Stop is an absolute rager as usual, this was the tour debut of the Nonagon Medley and they eld nothing back it seems.
Big Fig Wasp has some smaller mistakes that lead into some slightly improvised guitar runs and leads to a unique version.
Gamma Knife plays out as expected with a Some Context outro, Eric's lack of presence is seemingly not a deterrence.
Shanghai and
Blame It On The Weather are just as bouncy as the album versions, if not more.
An energetic
Cut Throat Boogie is present as a tour debut but was played earlier on march 5th in Melbourne.
The River here is a cut above the rest from the ones before it, it shares similarity with the bombastic
Chunky Shrapnel version but amps it up with some light improv in the middle as the rhythm section plays a particularly tribal sounding beat that launches into one last rebound into the coda.
Static Electrcity and
East West Link delivers a perfect chaser with it's intense swagger here, a very very solid version.
Ataraxia here has it's grime levels set above normal and delivers a lot of deserved feedback.
Predator X is still relatively new at this point but it still provides a fantastic start to the metal suite.
Self-Immolate ramps up the energy and provides a powerful drum solo intro by Cavs into a tight main song.
Hell is the big climax of the metal suite and feels like it is going off the rails in all the right places, we are in the homestretch now.
Slow Jam 2 starts off very subtle with some ramping into the jam and eventually a smorgasbord of teases from songs like
Iron Lung and
Ice V, there is also a heavy electric piano and synth presence which gives this version even more uniqueness and turns it into some really great freeform funk at places.
The final climax is among one of the most cathartic in the whole tour and it'll never get old for me as they explode into a raging inferno before finally coming down for an outro.