TDIH Rocks Off Boat Cruise New York, NY 5/24/2006

“This week’s #ThisDealInHistory is pulled from our May 24, 2006 concert aboard one of the Rocks Off Concert Cruise boats. Founded by our good friend and OG tND associate Jake Szufnarowski, The Rocks Off Concert Cruise would feature bands playing on one of their many boats that would venture off on a cruise through the various waterways surrounding Lower Manhattan. It made for a pretty fun time and this week’s audio cut captures some of that energy. Note the bass tone that leads off this week’s opening jam - it’s part rock/part fuzz but All Dan. It was around this time that Dan really started turning up the “rock” in his bass sound, much to our delight and encouragement. I would even bring some bass picks and surreptitiously leave them on top of his amp in the hope that he would use them (which he would from time to time). A key change at 1:10 leads to a new Moog-led segment and ANOTHER key change at 2:05, this time with the cue for “Sub Sky” getting triggered at 2:09 by yours truly. The other guys had something else in mind, though, so Sub Sky gets waved off in favour of some more jamming (you’ll never hear a complaint from me about that!). In fact, there aren’t any tND songs played in this week’s cut; you get nothing but in-the-moment musical exploration. Things speed up until the new section begins at 2:19. Some groovy Juno chords slide in at 2:59 to help change the sonic personality and take a little of the aggressive edge off of the feel. Note that Dan has continued to keep the rock bass tone going until 4:10 when he drops a severe filter on it. That definitely contributes to taking the edge off a little bit - a conscious decision to help increase the dynamic flow. ONE more key change at 5:27 is followed by another trigger cue at 5:40, although it’s probably one of the least-noticeable ones that I play. If i’m using that blippy Moog tone and start playing random notes over many octaves then that’s a cue for Dan to cut out and for Darren to start playing like he does at 5:51. I will eventually change my patch to what we hear in that section and it becomes a Jamie/Darren duet. This would often become the transition into Technobeam but not for this show. We instead return to the previous theme, incorporating a new motif from 7:11 until another Darren/Jamie breakdown at 7:38. A new progression/motif is established here; this one featuring an aggressive filter-bass/drums combo supporting a thick keyboard chord pattern with a simplified synth melody. I love the little bass turnaround that Dan throws in at 9:51 - it totally adds another harmonic ingredient to the recipe that we’re creating on stage. Someone gives a cue for the unison offbeat shots and with that we stop/start our way to the end of this week’s #TDIH.” -Jamie