Cycles | 2021-06-25 | Rancho Del Rio, Bond, CO [SBD/AUD Matrix]

I’ve been awake for a long time – I know it from the pictures I took of Cycles at Beanstalk Festival!

After a day of unrelenting rain, the sun finally set over the Rancho Del Rio valley, and as darkness filtered into the stage area, we traded sunlight for lighting rigs, as Cycles took the stage for their only set of the weekend. The band has gone through plenty of growth over the last few years. This is my fourth time seeing Cycles at Beanstalk, and this is their third drummer, after first losing founding member and key songwriter, Michael Wood, to academia and then losing Colin O’Brien to Neal Francis. This would be new-new drummer Luke Stone’s first Beanstalk Festival with the band, a large role to fill in the most popular trio at the festival. But like so many bands at Beanstalk this year, this set was about evolution, and Luke appears to be a key part of that growth, stepping into the role with confidence, ready to show he’s able to be a part of the future, which, if this set is any indication, seems bright.  

The band kicked things off with a new tune off the upcoming album titled “Terraform”, a ferocious stoner-metal type jaunt with a delightfully Cycles-esque chorus, featuring the ominous lyric “I’ve been awake for a long time, I know it from the pictures of back home”, which follows the song’s cadence in a creepily apt way. This segued into one of the band’s last singles, “Summer Dress”, a dreamy tune with an ear-worm hook that resolves each verse with a satisfying descending-note pentatonic riff before morphing into the second section of the song, a funky disco-type breakdown with a refrain about breaking up the band “cause of money”. This was followed by “Square Peg”, another original driven by an infectiously catchy riff that slithers through the tune like a sand snake, driving the melody and the dynamics throughout the song.  Next up was another duo of newer tunes, the first, “Ocean”, features a balladic chorus, pining to “wake up on the ocean side”, and lamenting being “land locked and out of options”. Afterward, the band kicked into “Strife (Part 1 and Part 2)”, an epic instrumental with a more classic Cycles feel, juxtaposing reverb-drenched refrains with pointed riff attack “verses”.

The band then performed a duo of Cycles classics, first the always jam-filled “Something in the Water”.  This tried-and-true Cycles jam-vehicle was no different during this set, propelling the band into their most expanded improvisation of the evening, containing several teases including the out-of-left field but perfectly Cycles tease of Andrew W.K. party anthem, “Party Hard”. The band then launched into another classic Cycles instrumental, “The Call”, before landing into another newer tune titled “Beyond”, which contained a “Dark Star” jam to the gleeful applause of the non-shockingly Deadhead friendly audience.  This shifted into a synth jam that showcased drummer Luke Stone’s impressive ability to interface with the more avant-garde textures in Cycles’ expansive spectrum of sound. The set then closed out with one final coupling of Patrick-penned songs, “Sunrise > The Clock”, each of which contained their own respective big-reverb laden outros, guided by Patrick’s machine gun style guitar work,  piledriving the set to a cathartic peak before the end.

“Things always change, nothing stays the same” sings Patrick, as their set closed out Beanstalk, and nothing may be more apropos for the band right now. Losing a key member who wrote many of the songs that made the band popular can be difficult for any band to overcome. It would be easy to rest on your laurels and just try to find a happy medium that works for what you had. But Cycles took this as an opportunity to challenge themselves, writing new material that finds the voice they had all along. Songs like “Terraform”, “Ocean”, and “Summer Dress” show that as the band evolves, so does their songwriting, but it will always be Cycles, and that’s just fine by me.

Cycles | 2021-06-25 | Beanstalk Music & Mountains Festival at Rancho Del Rio, Bond, CO

-= One Set =-

01. Terraform

02. Summer Dress[1]

03. Square Peg[2]

04. Ocean

05. Strife (Part 1 and Part 2)

06. Something In The Water[3]

07. The Call

08. Beyond[4] >

09. (Beanstalk Synth Jam)[5] >

10. Sunrise >

11. The Clock[6]

Show Notes: This set kicked off the second day of the Beanstalk Music Festival. 

[1] “Summer Dress” contained a “Hey Jude” (The Beatles) jam. 

[2] During the intro to “Square Peg” Patrick had the crowd wish Tucker a Happy Birthday. 

[3] “Something In The Water” contained “Party Hard” (Andrew W.K.), “White Room” (Cream), and “Purple Haze” teases. 

[4] “Beyond” contained “Dark Star” (Grateful Dead) teases.

[5] “(Beanstalk Jam)” contained “The Call” and “Tweezer (Reprise)” (Phish) teases.

[6] “The Clock” contained a “Jessica” (Allman Brothers Band) tease.

Taper Notes: Mics setup FOB DFC raised around 7′ PAS. Board feed was split off of the PA sends but does not have the subs mixed in. As a result, the recording is matrixed with the audience feed to provide low-end as well as ambient sound. I lost power around the end of “Beyond” and had to switch power units so around 10-15 seconds of that was cut and spliced together at around the 7m10s mark. Thanks to sound engineer Richard Hartanft for the patch and mix!

LINK: https://archive.org/details/Cycles2021-06-25.StudioProjects.C4.MKII.cards.AUD.SBD.Matrix.FLAC16bit