10/7/00 - Saturday, The Sanctuary - Las Vegas, NV

https://archive.org/details/db2000-10-07.mk21.flac16

Image: the historic Huntridge Theater of Las Vegas stands derelict in March 2019. The Sanctuary was a small side theater around the corner on the right (source: Las Vegas Sun via AP).

The first Barfly of the year opens with some bluesy riffing and features two well played solos. The final chorus dissolves into noise as Sammy starts up a Shem-Rah intro. The Shem-Rah has a mildly interesting and vaguely hypnotic short intro jam. After a sloppy instrumental bridge, the main jam begins in earnest. The first part of the jam is honestly spectacular. Barber finds a gorgeous soulful riff to complement Magner’s barrage of acid synths, and the passage beginning around 10:45 is almost transcendent. The jam departs this theme around the fourteen minute mark and moves into darker territory, before building back up into a triumphant ending. Magner is the star for most of the jam, which is excellent overall, but none of it compares to those three or so minutes at the beginning of the jam where he and Barber lock into that incredible, gorgeous theme. The Kamaole Sands jam quickly enters more somber territory, but slowly builds towards something more blissful. After a very mellow crescendo around 10-10:30, the jam begins to break down into sonic dissonance. It is here that the jam loses my interest, and it kind of plods along until it gradually develops into a Bernstein & Chasnoff peak. A great first half and solid conclusion to a fairly exploratory debut. The Morph jam begins with some droning synths, but is mostly type one. A sinister minimalist trance jam develops, building to a powerful Waves ending. Waves is inverted, and the jam out has some of the dub influences of the fall 99 versions, although it is firmly a trance jam. It’s pretty mellow in pace all the way through, and isn’t as compelling to me as the first half of the segment. The rhythm begins to shift around the 14 minute mark and heads back into a solid Morph ending.

Overture opens the second set, the first with the full band since 10/27/99. Its jam section benefits from the band’s almost fanatical commitment to dnb jamming at the time. It’s very tight, and Barber has some new tools, such as the distinctive muted distortion that he uses so much on the tour, that give some extra edge and character to this version. The jam is very solid and builds to a strong crescendo, but of course there is considerably better dnb throughout the tour. The second ever Hope follows, and the jam really could not be any more different from the previous one. The first Hope was something of a seedling of what a mature Hope would sound like, but this version is playful and bouncy in a way that most are not. Magner latches onto an infectious and playful groove that he plays around with for several minutes. Around the 12-13 minute mark the tempo begins to pick up, and gradually the band begins building on a patient bliss theme, which shifts suddenly around 15:30 heading back toward Kamaole Sands. Bernstein & Chasnoff begins fairly innocuously, but soon devolves into a kind of dissonant digital territory beginning around 4:30. The jam that emerges is vaguely sinister, not unlike the dark B&C jams of 1999. This theme is teasingly short however; around the eight minute mark Magner begins bringing the jam back into more comfortable waters. Barber gets to show off his rock god chops in the final minutes before the transition back into Hope, which is executed masterfully. The first Munchkin without Mauricio gets the fourth quarter slot. It is played slightly faster than the Camp version, which is played slightly faster than the previous versions, but it is still decisively slower than modern versions. This is particularly true in the “death march” drum segment before the verse (where there is a barely perceptible sloppiness but a good recovery). The Munchkin jam features Magner on the acid synths and Barber using such heavy distortion that his guitar playing could easily be called amelodic. Magner creeps in with some more symphonic synths around the 8-9 minute mark, and Barber returns to a more traditional guitar sound. Perhaps as a holdover from the Mauricio days, the band doesn’t so much peak the song; rather, they kind of just arrive at the ending. It’s a very cool jam overall: spacey, psychedelic and atmospheric. There will be better uses of Munchkin later in the year, but it is refreshing to hear it get proper treatment after all the Mauricio versions. The Home Again that closes the set is much closer to the standard version that the Biscuits would play for the next twenty years than it is to the previous version. There is no dnb in this jam, rather it is a patient groove that builds to a triumphant ending. Fall 2000 was already bursting at the seams with dnb, but I can’t say that this is a positive development for the song. The jam is solid and completely standard. After Home Again, the band returns to the stage for a long encore, a 28 minute House Dog. The first jam is standard (somewhat of a letdown after the impressive Camp Bisco version), but the second jam has a few peculiarities. It begins (after Barber thanks everyone for coming) with a drum solo, punctuated by hip-hop style samples and record scratches. After this unconventional beginning, the jam begins to slowly make its way back toward familiar territory. The patient build to the Party Favor ending is excellent.

I was pleasantly surprised with this show. I’m not sure how it would stack up against the previous night—while there are no moments on par with the M.E.M.P.H.I.S. or The Very Moon, I think this show on the whole is more consistent. Highlights and more below.

Highlights:

Shem-Rah Boo

A thrilling standalone version that is rather uneven, but also contains the only jamming of the show that I’ve seen fit to label “transcendent.” Even though that moment doesn’t last for more than a few minutes, it’s enough to put the whole jam at the top of my list.

B&C > Hope

All three of the various combinations of B&C, Hope, and Kamaole exceeded my original expectations for them. This is the one I had the lowest hopes for (mainly for the timestamp), but I think it managed to come out on top. The B&C jam gets very weird before building up to the triumphant ending of Hope. An interesting take on the dark B&C idea that became so dominant in 1999.

Hope > Kamaole

There is a lot to like about this Hope jam. It’s considerably more playful than a typical Hope jam, which is usually a lumbering psychedelic juggernaut. This jam keeps a playful spirit as it moves through different themes before finally building to Kamaole bliss.

Munchkin

The first version without Mauricio and it’s executed brilliantly. Great psychedelic atmosphere in the first half that yields to symphonic excellence in the second.

Stray Observations:

This show features the Biscuits debut of Kamaole Sands, as well as the first Barfly of the year, the first Munchkin Invasion without Mauricio, and the first Overture with the full band since 1999.

Hope is split for the first time.

This is the first of eight pairings of Morph and Waves.

This is the second ever inverted Waves, and first since 8/21/99.

The second set is preceded by a shoutout to two members of Wyclef Jean’s ListServ who showed up to the show. Some amusing banter and lighthearted jamming there. Barber refers to The Overture as one of Wyclef Jean’s earlier works.

At 21:15 in House Dog Party Favor, Aron Magner debuts the Gates of Hell. This synth would become a major influence on the fall 2000 sound.

—Mr. Zan