@WaxBrain said:

Waiting to check this out once it hits The Spreadsheet....
But tell me: is it greater 2nd set than Albany 11-28-09??

*divine* username there, boss.

the long beach r&r is more fluid and multifarious than the albany seven below -- the build that starts around 22 minutes into r&r has a unique texture, and when the bottom falls out of the jam and fish starts getting abstract the jam only *deepens*, which can't always be said of the band's 2009 stuff. i'm really impressed by how responsive and egoless this jam is!

the 11/28/09 seven below does have that unbelievable moment early on, about 11 minutes in, when mike starts playing this quick upper-register pattern over a jibboo drumbeat and trey folds in from whale calls to a robot-cry minor chord, page starts bashing out primary coloured piano lines and the whole goddamn building seems to lift off into space. (that's how it felt to me on the night, as i rapidly acquired lingering tinnitus up in the cheap seats.)

the albany ghost essentially folds in a swell piper jam and blows itself out spectacularly at the close; it's a 'type ii' ghost, in the threadbare local parlance. the long beach ghost is a lot more linear, after an opening bit of sass -- lots of NYE 2010 ghost echoes in there, and a dose of weekapaug too. after settling in, this latest ghost is pure momentum -- they're bombing downhill on skis instead of scaling some tricky cliff face. but there's so much tension built in that r&r jam that the ghost feels *necessary*. same thing as the ghost > boogie from worcester in june, actually: after a more cerebral exploration it's nice to just get everybody off.

nice little transition in to L*L though, and some hair-raising work from fish in that tune. raise your hand if you treasure the languid 13-minute pre-y2k versions of that song but still love the rhythmic zest of the new limbs!

anyhow the point here is that in this weird misguided hopeless head-to-head comparison of the -7> ghost and rock> ghost suites, long beach has the stronger opener, successfully experimental and cohesive, and a very pure focused green-means-go ghost climax; albany's got that surprising cloudburst feeling to -7 and a more wide-ranging take on ghost.

the hood decisively tips any such comparison in long beach's favour, i think. but why compare? hard drives are cheap, broadband is cheap.