STS9 Plays ‘Artifact’ In Its Entirety & Axe The Cables At Red Rocks Run
By Scott Bernstein Sep 11, 2017 • 2:04 pm PDT
Jamtronica pioneers STS9 started a celebration of the band’s 20th anniversary with three shows at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre this past weekend. Tribe began with a Friday night concert that included a full performance of 2005’s Artifact LP and ended the run with a Sunday night concert that featured a rare “Axe The Cables” set.
STS9 fit their first complete performance of Artifact within both sets of the run opener. The LP’s first track “Musical Story, Yes” was followed by the next 10 tracks on the album to form the first set. “Peoples” was reworked to sound closer the version found on Artifact, while “GLOgi” was shorter than usual and featured an ambient modular jam. Bassist Alana Rocklin went with an upright for the “Tonight The Ocean Swallowed The Moon” that ended the first set of the run. Tribe then completed the Artifact performance by fitting the LP’s final nine tunes into the second set. STS9 ended the night with a “Real & Imagined”/”Breathe In” encore.
The quintet focused on more recent material for the second show of the run on Saturday. STS9 worked “You Don’t Say” into a “Kamuy” sequence that included “Potamus” within to open the concert. Other highlights were the “Golden Gate” > “Arigato” that ended the first set, a remix of Lorde’s “Green Light” and a second set-closing run of “Vapors,” “Be Pulse” and “Inspire Strikes Back” ahead of the “Tap-In” encore.
For Sunday’s finale, STS9 went without laptops and in some cases went acoustic for a rare Axe The Cables performance. Tribe reeled off one late ’90s/early ’00s composition after opening with the more recent “Light Years.” Some of the oldies played during the Axe The Cables set were “Ramone & Emiglio,” “Satori,” “Water Song” and “Frequencies 2 & 3.” The five-piece went to their normal configuration for the final set of the run which included plenty of material from 2016’s The Universe Inside including “New Dawn, New Day,” “Sun, Moon & Stars” and “Get Loud.” STS9 ended the run with a song nearly as old as the band, “Orbital.”
Pro-Shot Videos
9/8
https://www.facebook.com/sts9/videos/10155745692237710/9/9
https://www.facebook.com/sts9/videos/10155748431662710/9/10
https://www.facebook.com/sts9/videos/10155751211972710/Fan-Shot Videos
Setlists (via Church Of STS9)
9/8
Set One: Musical Story, Yes, Better Day, By the Morning Sun, Tokyo, Artifact, Native End > ReEmergence, Peoples*, GLOgli**, Today > Tonight the Ocean Swallowed the Moon***
Set Two: Forest Hu, Somesing, Trinocular > Vibyl, 8 & a Extra, Possibilities^, Peoples Pt. 2^^, First Mist Over Clear Lake, Music, Us
Encore: Real & Imagined, Breathe In
- Artifact was played in its entirety.
- *reworked, closer to album version, with new DnB ending jam
- **short version w/ ambient modular jam to end it
- ***w/ Alana on standup bass
- ^w/ fast, heavy DnB jam
- ^^Very different than album version, jammed out, went back into regular Peoples
9/9
Set One: You Don’t Say* > Kamuy > Potamus** > Kamuy, When the Dust Settles (Reprise)***, Rent, Worry No More^, Golden Gate^^ > Arigato
Set Two: Rise Above, Get Loud, Abcees, Hidden Hand, Hidden Fist, Enceladus, Green Light (Lorde – STS9 remix)***, Vapors, Be Pulse, Inspire Strikes Back
Encore: Tap-In
- *very short modular-like ambient segue into Kamuy
- **w/ Kamuy teases
- ***ambient modular jam ending
- ^synth heavy modular ending
- ^^w/ Arigato samples
9/10
Set One (Axe The Cables): Light Years, The Rabble, Ramone & Emiglio, Satori, Water Song, Warrior, Surreality > EB, Frequencies 2 > 3
Set Two (Electric): New Dawn, New Day > Move My Peeps, F. Word, Hi-Key, Equinox, Shock Doctrine, Sun, Moon & Stars, Get Loud
Encore: Orbital
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