An incredible show, full of sound, fury, beauty, and grooves. The slow ascent in Theia from heavenly dreamscape to ferocious beats, achieved with clear mastery and confidence, made it clear that the show ahead was going to be one for the books. I've been a fan of this band since 2014 and have followed their live shows for years, and to my ears this format represents a clear leveling up in the band's jamming. Seriously, the improvisation the guys can achieve in this rave setup is unreal. The crowd and band seemed to click into that flow state almost immediately, and from increasingly abstract beats into spacey passages of experimentation, the music barely stopped. Out of the ambience Stu's electric flute honked out Hot Water's melody, and soon enough Joey's guitar was riffing off hectic synth patterns and Cavs was taking us into skittering funk territory. The crowd was going berzerk by now and inflatable alligators and wizard beards were flying about . Another dissolve into noise yielded the menacing Flamethrower outro and its dungeon synths, chugging metal riffs and hypnotic drums. This increasingly heavy passage only intensified the otherwordly vibe the band had already established, and by the end Joey's celebratory shout of "fucking UNTZ" felt like the only thing you could say. 

An almost Dead-like flowering of synth and guitar hovered over the exhausted audience before the Magenta Mountain emerged from the mist. The ascent up this mountain was sustained and increasingly heavy, as Stu's wrathful solo gave way to looping dungeon keys and then some proper harsh techno arpeggios, like the band was actually an arcane summoning circle playing music for a ritual. Some chimes announced a change of pace, the wooshing, wistful wash of synths began carried on them Slow Jam's chords, and the crowd finally had some room to breathe. This spacious peace didn't last for long, though, as Joey picked up his guitar again and began urging his bandmates into something funkier. It wasn't long before they had picked up what he was going for and began a big fat arpeggio, Cavs building up to a massive drop working his rhythm perfectly on top of the arpeggiated line and giving Joey the perfect moment to take his soloing into the stratosphere. This amazing moment of serendipitous jamming may be the coolest moment of the show (in my humble opinion). One more drop into Slow Jam gave way to a wall of noise as Joey again shouted what we were all thinking: "This is sick!"

Next came an emerging melody that had us all wondering "is this what it sounds like?" Because it sounded just like the main chord progression of Hell's Itch, but slow, synthy, majestic. Stu hopped back on his e-flute and the band jammed this melody for an extended 10 plus minutes of beautiful music that flowed through waves of sound. After 10 minutes of this I was unsure if this would actually become Hell's Itch or just be a jam that sounded like it, but after a drop into quietude the singing began, removing all doubt. What a cool, weird way to debut one of their best, most expansive, heretofore ignored songs! And is Joey singing a different song's lyrics on top of this too? Bellowing throat singing from Stu brought the song back to a jam, this one slowly bringing us from that joyful celebration into darker, eerier territory, the fucking UNTZ returning. I was absolutely dumbstruck by this section, as it genuinely sounded like proper techno music like you'd get at Berghain. I never believed the guys could ever make such convincing techno, but the beats and the lightshow really did feel like a proper club night at this point. 

The untz slowly revealed in its darkness the melody of Swan Song, and the heaviness of the bass and the beats, the menacing vibes of the song itself, and the overpowering light show all conspired to take the audience into the darkest places. That the band is unafraid to get this dark and austere is a testament to their musical courage, and the crowd was really out there in space with them. This was without doubt the most intense, disorienting part of the show, and the fatigue from all the dancing made it feel even crazier. The segue into what on the setlist is called Luseq was seamless, the main melody appearing, only to dissipate into scary synth noise and then reappear again. It is pretty hard to put into words what the combined 30 minutes of music that Swan Song->Luseq sounds like or felt like. Suffice it to say that what turned out to be the climax of the show was punishing and intense, moreso than I've ever heard from the band (until the next two shows). From this madness finally emerged a familiar groove and Stu honked on his e-flute one last time as MOTU took us home. We left elated and spent, pushed through the cosmic wringer by a band at the height of their powers.