Just wanted to begin with a shout out to solargarlic. Man, we have seriously needed a voice like yours on this site, doing reviews, for ages. Seriously. The musicological know-how and your profound sense of balance (which I lack entirely) are excellent complements to one another. Just keep doing what you're doing.

So here's my take on CMAC 2014.

My title: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde / Schizophrenia / "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" / A tale of two sets

How's is that for balance?

First set: I thought the set list design for this one was top notch. A rarity opener, followed by an unlikely Twist, got my engines going. All in all, this set included four relatively long type 1 jammers. The Gin was a 3.0 Gin... but as has been said... very standard. The Divided Sky gradually ripened on the vine, was standout by its conclusion. The Bowie was fresh, composed sections were very tight. Coming off the best Wombat to date, the highlight of the first set really, and then this Bowie... I must admit that my expectations were very high for the next set.

By way of some commentary, I think CMAC 14 suffered from the blessing/curse of following up on an epic weekend out in NYC and one of the best shows arguably in a really really long time. The continuity of energy and flow from Sunday are evident throughout the first set, and even in some select stretches of the second set... but all and all, in the second set, Randall's quantum wave collapses back into particulate, Tuesday night, tired off a long run, cool television appearances, form. Living in the shadow Randalls... that may be the way we refer to these mid-week shows in years to come... or those two shows with the really cool posters. History will decide.

The second set starts off with a shit-ton of energy. This Disease is manic, frenetic. At one point, I became fully disoriented... and had difficulty telling if the sound was in the air or in my head... if you know what I mean. Seriously. What had me stoked at about the 15 minute mark was the absence of the usual, eventual, and even nearly inevitable ambient let-down we have heard in a lot of the longer 2nd set jams of this tour. The tempo was up and things were becoming very melodic..... And then came the rip cord... No comment. The last time we have seen a DWD BOTT intro to a later set was 10/31/10. Solargarlic is right to point out a certain amount of continuity between BOTT and the rest of the show, but I heard lots of Wombat intimations throughout... not necessarily continuities with the Disease jam itself. I was hoping for the long one, the big one, the type 2 BOTT I have always been waiting for... But then NICU hits. Ouch. Honestly, I'd rather have heard something off the new album. I feel like the second set re-set or really began for the first time during Jibboo. What an excellent jam! The rest of the set is really hit or miss for me. Theme had this perfect, interstellar, hypotactic outro, which I thought was going somewhere interesting... Fuego is just incredible always. It is starting to remind me of Light 09 or Ghost 97, in a state of total and continual evolution. It sounded to me like the boys tried a composed outro after some type 1 jamming... but I could be wrong. Just great though despite its shortness. Antelope... always fun. They teased the hell out of this one. I have never heard Page so involved in the mimetic Antelope fun.... The St. Thomas teases were really something special as always. That being said, I was hoping for the YEM closer. It seem slated for CMAC in my mind, perhaps it will hit at DTE. I have been chasing that one for a while.

All and all, a good time, a great poster. Here's hoping for some Midwest fall tour dates.

Peace.