10/31/00 - Tuesday, Trax - Charlottesville, VA

https://archive.org/details/db2000-10-31.mastered.flac

Image: a man walks past the derelict-looking Trax in Charlottesville (source: pinterest.com)

Review:

While Jam > Chemical Warfare Brigade would later signify something momentous in a setlist, it does not here. The Chemical Warfare Brigade is a pretty standard version, and the jam is too short to really build anything. The legendary version of Mindless Dribble begins unassumingly, with a repeating synth line over a backdrop of mostly ambient noodling. The rhythm is pretty standard, but Sammy tosses in an occasional breakbeat measure or two. The Dribble hits come in around the 7 minute mark, and Barber takes more of a leading role, laying down a very catchy repeating riff. After settling into a more mellow passage, the jam begins to build to a crescendo. Sammy’s drumming becomes thunderous, Barber’s playing becomes more ominous, and Magner’s synths take on the quality of drills boring holes into your skull. In the midst of the psychotic crescendo, Barber starts playing the Dribble riffs, but he quickly thinks better of this, and pretty soon after the jam breaks down completely. Whether this was intentional or not is unimportant; the theme after the breakdown is incredible. Magner crafts a tense atmosphere with a very subtle synth effect. This theme breaks down even further, to some psychedelic noise after the 16 minute mark, and pretty soon Barber takes the lead. Around the 19 minute mark Barber switches on the muted distortion to great effect, and shortly afterward Magner switches to a heavily electronic synth, reminiscent of a laser beam. Around 22:45, Barber switches back to a more regular effect, and builds up to a devastating Dribble ending. A spectacular Dribble jam, especially the type two second half. Magner quickly settles into a catchy theme using the heavily distorted acid synths in the outro jam. The jam develops into an excellent trance theme that toes the line between creepy and uplifting, until a tense breakdown shortly after the 35 minute mark places it firmly in creepy territory. Barber’s riffs take on a decidedly more melancholy quality as Magner’s synths become more foreboding. About a minute to the track change, Sammy begins to increase the tempo, and Magner moves to a more distorted synth effect, as the jam approaches Boop territory. Boop is jammed out of the funk section, which is pretty standard until Magner begins to incorporate Gates of Hell flourishes. He leans more and more heavily on the Gates of Hell as the jam enters weirder and more cacophonous territory. Gradually, Sammy brings the tempo down for a transition into Floodlights. The Floodlights jam starts off unassumingly, but by the middle the band, led by Magner, finds an infectiously catchy theme. The band builds from this theme into a more triumphant passage, which peaks around the 14 minute mark and begins to build back up to Boop. In the jam out of Boop, Magner immediately settles into a dreamy psychedelic theme; unfortunately, this jam is short-lived, and pretty quickly settles into a Voices intro. This is one of the better executed Voices intro jams I’ve heard, but I wish they had explored that type two theme a bit more. The Voices too is one of the strongest I’ve heard, easily on par with 10/14 and maybe a notch better. An excellent close to an excellent set.

The second set opens with Spaga, an eminently patient version. It’s not particularly inventive, but solid throughout, one of the stronger standalones yet played. The Spaga ending melts into a Floes intro. The Floes is similar to the Spaga, in that it is another drawn out standalone that, while it does not innovate much, is a well-played and strong version. After Floes, the band launches into a short, hypnotic trance jam reminiscent of a Thieving Magpie intro. Sammy stays locked in a standard four on the floor beat until the final seconds of the jam when his drumming becomes more playful, and the band segues into the official debut of The Big Happy, developed from a jam in the Mindless Dribble from 10/6/00. It is still pretty undeveloped, but you can hear a few inchoate ideas that would later take shape on They Missed The Perfume. The jam out begins after a breakdown around 5:40. It is, unsurprisingly, a mostly uplifting trance style jam. It builds up to a massive Dribble ending fakeout at the 9 minute mark and drops back into The Big Happy again. A very short jam but very enjoyable as well. After this second verse, the jam quickly builds in tempo. Barber soon introduces the Munchkin hits, and the band pulls off a segue into Munchkin Invasion. The Munchkin Invasion jam has some distinct Floes themes, and stays in Floes territory until it slides into Munchkin territory. It’s a very cool and well-executed concept. After Munchkin, the band invites “Billy Corgan” (actually Adam William Davis) to sing Cherub Rock. Brownie announces “We are Smashing Pumpkins” as the crew apparently smashed pumpkins on the stage. Amusing stuff that doesn’t exactly translate to the tape, but the cover is well-executed, and I’m glad the band didn’t do a third set of Siamese Dream or something. The band returns to the stage for a very short rendition of Run Like Hell, enjoyable even if there is not enough room for it to explore.

The first set is one of the best of the tour. The second is nowhere near as strong but perfectly solid.

Highlights:

Dribble

A contender for the best Dribble of all time. The first half of the jam is a pretty standard Dribble theme, and the second is type two psychedelic madness.

Dribble > Boop

A variety of sinister and melancholy themes that eventually builds up to an intense transition into Boop.

Floodlights > Boop

The jam settles into an earworm of a theme developed by Magner. This theme builds to a blissful crescendo, before making its way to the end (or beginning?) of Boop.

Voices

Perhaps a hair better than the fan-favorite 10/14 version. Spacey and psychedelic.

Stray Observations:

I believe Boop is intended to be a “split inversion,” which would make it the first ever. The band plays a little bit extra of the ending of Boop in the second track before playing the verses. However, this Boop is usually notated as dyslexic.

There are Thieving Magpie teases in Boop > Voices. The last Magpie was 12/30/99, a gap of 36 shows.