10/25/00 - Wednesday, Barrymore Theater - Madison, WI

https://archive.org/details/db2000-10-25.flacakg480sck61/

Image: The interior of the then-newly renovated Barrymore Theater in 2018 (source: madison.com)

Review:

The Story that opens this show is one of my favorite standalone versions. It maintains the exploratory feel of the earliest versions of the song, going from a melancholy funky house jam to the triumphant territory of the Story ending. By the 10 minute mark the jam is a feel-good fist-pumping trance vehicle that builds to an excellent Story peak. Dribble, the first since 10/14, is played in a similar dub style. The theme that forms in the first part of the jam is utterly captivating. The first Dribble hits do not come in until around 8:30 (although they are hinted at around the 7 minute mark), and from here the jam builds to a frenzied Dribble ending. This is maybe Barber’s best Dribble ending since 3/27/99 (peep 12:30-13:50 or so). The Dribble outro is a fast paced shuffling jam. Magner starts the jam off entirely on piano, but by the 20 minute mark he layers on a complementary theme with the synths. It turns into a bliss theme that builds up to a Shem-Rah intro that stays in type one territory for several minutes before dropping into the song. The Shem-Rah jam is utterly spectacular, one of the finest jams of the tour and ever. Sammy lays down a brisk four on the floor beat and Magner develops an earworm of a trance theme. Around 6:15 he comes in on the same theme using the acid synths. This theme starts to break down shortly afterward, and by 7:45 it builds itself back up into a slightly mellower trance theme. This theme actually retains a lot of similarity to the previous theme: Magner’s keyboard lines revolve around a similar idea. As Barber starts to move more into the forefront, the jam starts to become more melancholy. He builds up to a crescendo and breaks down around a haunting riff around the 13 minute mark. Here the tone of the jam shifts dramatically. Magner moves towards the cleaner synths. The jams slowly shifts from the mournful territory of the preceding theme towards Hope. Somewhere around the 15 minute mark Brownie starts to play around with the Hope bass line, and the rest of the track is largely type one. This is only the second transition into Hope, and it’s a night and day difference from the first one. The Hope jam itself is beautiful. Barber takes lead with a gorgeous riff in the first part of the jam. Sammy begins to add some dnb flourishes around the 10 minute mark, and Magner comes in with some acid synth lines. The jam takes off from here into a dnb vehicle, begins to break down into psychedelic noise at the 15 minute mark, and finally builds back into a powerful Hope ending. A spectacular segment, with above average versions of all three songs and one all-timer jam. A standard Wet closes the set.

The second set opens with Floodlights, started cold for the first time since its Electron debut. The jam out features a hypnotic trance groove. Sammy adds some breakbeat flourishes and the theme breaks down into a slower groove, before building back up to a large crescendo that melts into a News From Nowhere intro. An excellent jam, to which the News serves as an unconventional landing pad. A 25 minute Hot Air Balloon piqued my curiosity immediately, but it’s entirely type one. Both jams are stretched out a bit more than usual, but neither explores any uncharted territory. The Morph (perhaps making up for the solid half hour of type one preceding it) gets into a type two theme almost from the drop. It starts as a tense trance groove rather than in typical funk territory, and it stays in that territory pretty much the whole way. It’s eerie and atmospheric, but it doesn’t innovate much. It builds to a kind of psychedelic crescendo at the 12 minute mark, then breaks down and melts into the middle (end?) of Vassilios. The jam out of Vassilios is a strange one. House Dog has another nice, spacey first jam. The first half of the jam is very enjoyable, the second is pretty standard. The second jam is a little on the short side, and ends pretty suddenly. The Radiator jam is very cool. It begins as a kind of eerie groove that builds up to a steady trance jam and culminates in a large Morph ending.

A very uneven show. The first set is one of the best of the tour, and the second set is largely unremarkable. In my opinion, the highlights win out on this one.

Highlights:

Shem-Rah Boo > Hope

One of the highlights of the tour, let alone the show. Uptempo acid trance yields to more patient trance themes, and finally melts into psychedelic bliss.

Mindless Dribble

The strongest full Dribble of the year so far, and Barber’s strongest since 3/27/99.

Story of the World

Another contender for strongest standalone. The first part of the theme is tense and exploratory, but the second will have you grinning ear-to-ear.

Floodlights > News From Nowhere

The sneaky highlight of the second set comes in this unconventional pairing. Some cool psychedelic jamming without a clear destination.

Stray Observations:

This is the second of six shows played at the historic Barrymore Theater. The first was 9/18/99. So far, the band is batting a thousand in this room.

This is the first ever inverted Vassilios. It’s an idea better in theory than in execution most times, but it’s managed to crop up a couple other times.