10/10/00 - Tuesday, The Galaxy - Santa Ana, CA

https://archive.org/details/db2000-10-10.mk21.flac16

Imge: Santa Ana's The Observatory, the venue that now stands on the site of the Galaxy. (Image Source: Orange County Register)

Review

The Boop jam starts off far more restrained than usual, airy and psychedelic. After a chaotic passage from 5:30-6:45 or so, the jam sounds to be heading back into Boop, but very suddenly breaks down into ambient space beginning around 7:45. The mellow dub jam that ensues is pretty gorgeous, with some great ethereal atmosphere from Magner especially. Great smooth segue into Jigsaw. Jigsaw has a short atmospheric jam before the first chase, and another longer jam between the chase sections approaching nine minutes. The longer jam is absolutely fantastic, a chaotic and monolithic theme that always toes the line between trance and breakbeat, building furiously along its course until it culminates in a fiery uncomposed peak. Awesome stuff. In the next Jigsaw jam, the dub theme pretty quickly evolves into a Mulberry’s intro. Brownstein’s bass line pervades the entire jam, it runs the risk of growing stale at times, but the patience pays off in the segue. Despite its considerably longer than average length, the Mulberry’s is not really anything special. Barber’s solo is longer than usual, but it isn’t any more interesting, and in fact it is a significant step down from the Camp version to my ears. Humu follows, and it too isn’t quite on the same level as the Camp version. It’s a pretty standard type one build to a strong ending. The Vassilios that follows is an excellent version. It sticks to a mid-tempo pace for the first half. Barber holds onto a gorgeous and mournful riff which he repeats over the course of several minutes. The tempo builds very slowly until around 12:30 when it begins to pick up more rapidly. Magner dominates the atmosphere with the acid synths, which build in intensity throughout the second half of the jam. It has the distinct flavor of a Shem-Rah Boo ending in the final seconds, when it ultimately drops into the middle of Boop. Excellent jam. The Boop funk is appropriately fiery and intense, on par with almost any great 1999 version. It is firmly Barber-led throughout, with some trance flourishes from Magner and an electrifying peak.

Crickets opens the second set, and it is a heater. The first jam is relentless driving trance. Sammy keeps the tempo moving at a brisk pace, utilizing a housey four on the floor beat with occasional flourishes. He incorporates more snare towards the middle, which carries through to the end of the jam. Magner and Barber build off of each other, and, like the Munchkin from the previous show the jam never really peaks, instead featuring a steady and very gradual build into the middle riff. The funk jam is an excellent atmospheric vehicle. It never strays too far from the song but the band manages to carve out an impressive amount of space there. Shelby Rose gives us our first real jungle of the show. Magner contributes a range of atonal atmosphere and Barber noodles around with the muted distortion pedal that he favored in so many of these fall 2000 jungle jams. The atmosphere is excellent, but the jam does not really find any interesting themes until it begins to break down heading for Floes around 11:45, where the jungle beat continues but Barber is clearly playing around with a Floes theme. Around 13:45 Sammy’s beat gradually begins to die away, and the mellow theme the band crafts going into Floes is gorgeous. The band takes their time building back up the Floes intro, which works well here. The Floes jam is very cool, with some absolutely transcendent moments. It begins with Magner on the vocoder and some gorgeous riffs form Barber based around repeating series of triplets, all over Sammy’s thunderous percussion. Barber takes a step out of the box, and then returns to the same theme from before around 10:45, building upon it as the band slowly shifts away from the bliss territory of Floes towards the more sinister Jigsaw. Excellent peak into Jigsaw, and excellent dub jam in Jigsaw, reminiscent of the legendary 12/4/99 (and, around 6:50, Magner lifts a distinctive riff from that jam). Some Overture teases from Magner and some furious but soulful playing form Barber, with the two building on each others ideas and reaching a ferocious crescendo around 7:30-8:45, which settles down, almost unwillingly at first, into the ending of Jigsaw. Jigsaw has an outro jam based around the intro/ending riff, which quickly breaks down into structureless noise. Sammy begins to rebuild the thunderous drumming typical of a Floes ending and Barber plays a few pleasant noodling riffs. Around 16:30, Magner reenters the picture, and pretty soon the jam has taken on a surreal symphonic quality. It isn’t long before the band builds to the triumphant Floes ending, completing an excellent segment. The band returns to the stage for their third long encore in a row. Little Lai has some very pleasant Barber riffs, but Magner’s brain melting trance synths steal the show here. The tone of the jam becomes sinister and evil so quickly it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where, but by the eight minute mark we are no longer in poppy, blissful Lai territory, and we arrive in Plan B territory not long after. Plan B is a fairly standard version. Barber hits a great theme early on in his solo. The Plan B outro is based on the echoing “I had to run for my life” lyric, contrasted with the Jigsaw intro riff. It gradually takes shape around a steady beat from Sammy. The vocal samples continue as the tempo builds, which creates a pretty sweet effect, and the jam stays in a pretty distinctly type two space before returning to Lai bliss territory around the fourteen minute mark. Excellent segment, especially for an encore slot.

This show was an old go-to sleeper rec for fall 2000 and I think it holds up nicely. Multiple moments of seriously awesome stuff interspersed throughout a show that rarely dips below solid. Highlights below:

Highlights:

Vassilios > Boop

The perfect example of what a Vassilios jam should sound like, this slow building trance vehicle sounds downright evil before the fist pumping transition into Boop.

Jigsaw trance

Fall 2000 was the high water mark for Jigsaw Earth, and I think this was probably the strongest Jigsaw played up to this point (although it would be dethroned several times over the tour). This is the first realization of the true potential of the Jigsaw trance jam, considerably more fleshed out and thematic than previous versions. It builds on a single theme to a momentous conclusion.

Floes > Jigsaw

Vacillated between this and Jigsaw > Floes, and ultimately decided to give the edge to Floes > Jigsaw because the part that I found so special was longer. Barber is particularly impressive here, showing an ability to take a theme and weave in and out of it while continuing to build on it.

Jigsaw > Floes

There’s a minute or two in this jam that’s just completely transcendent.

Jigsaw dub

Nowhere near as groundbreaking as the Jigsaw trance, but every bit as well-executed

Boop > Jigsaw

Lighthearted mellow trance that breaks down into a cool dubby groove going into Jigsaw.

Stray Observations:

This show features the first Lai and Plan B of the year, as well as the first Boop and Vassilios with the full band.

This is the first of three shows played at the Galaxy.

This is the first Crickets played without Mauricio.

This is the first split Jigsaw Earth and first split Shelby Rose.

Barber sings the original lyrics to the Jigsaw ending, for the first time since 10/31/99.

There are Overture ending teases in the Jigsaw dub jam and the Plan B intro.

There are Jigsaw teases in the Plan B outro.

—Mr. Zan