11/17/00 - Friday, Toad's Place - New Haven, CT

https://archive.org/details/db2000-11-17archive.shnf

Image: The exterior of the famous Toad's Place (source: Yale Daily News)

Review:

The opening Very Moon is segued out of the first jam for the first time ever. It is less exploratory than some of the other recent versions (10/6 and 11/4 both go way deeper) as it segues into the end of Bernstein & Chasnoff, a very musically similar section. Nevertheless, this is a solid jam and an important development in the song’s history. Voices has a stronger-than-average intro jam, and the main jam gets interesting almost immediately. Sammy quickly lays down a breakbeat rhythm, and the rest of the band settles into a mellow and blissful theme. Just before the track change, Brownie begins to lay down the Humu bass line, and the band segues smoothly into Humu. The jam out of Humu develops into a house theme very quickly. Magner stays on the flute synth for the majority, and the jam moves very smoothly from blissful Humu territory to a tense theme. It gradually builds back up to a satisfying bliss peak as it returns to Humu. There is an outro jam that pretty much immediately reenters Voices territory. Sammy returns to breakbeats and Magner returns to distorted trance synths. It enters a subdued psychedelic groove, and before long Magner appears to signal a return to Voices. The band instead breaks down into a tense passage and stretches out this theme for a few minutes before finally making the return. A somewhat perplexing mid-set Wet is followed by a barn-burner of a Nughuffer. The jam gets off to a very mellow start, with restrained synth work and rhythmic guitar riffs over a delicate trance beat. It develops into a strangely blissful theme, before gradually making its way back toward more sinister territory. Shy of the 14 minute mark it begins to return to Nughuffer, culminating in an explosive and thrilling ending.

Helicopters has a smooth trance jam, simple and minimal while also very effective. It builds very gradually into a majestic theme, with Magner hitting a great idea around the 6 minute mark. The theme continues in this vein for several minutes; it becomes briefly melancholy at moments but never departs too far from the central idea. Around the 9 minute mark you can hear Bernstein & Chasnoff influences start to seep in, most noticeably from Brownie. The theme breaks down shortly after, and the rest of the band commits to the transition. The B&C jam is a mellow trance vehicle. It hovers in a blissful space until a sort of breakdown into Hope territory around the 8 minute mark. Rather than breaking down directly into Hope, it builds up to a second mellow crescendo featuring jazzy Barber riffs on a kind of electronic distortion. This jam transitions smoothly into Hope without any lost steam. The Hope jam has a vaguely dubby feel, but more energetic and aggressive than a typical dub jam. Barber finds a great groove and Magner delivers a thick and vaguely sinister trance riff. Around 10:30 Sammy begins to incorporate breakbeat flourishes and the jam gradually shifts to a triumphant dnb influenced theme. The return to the ending of Hope is excellent. Hope drop segues into a Shem-Rah Boo intro, which has the briefest of jams. The main jam in Shem-Rah Boo is fantastic and eminently patient. Barber plays a series of sexy riffs over a mellow rhythm, underscored by Magner’s trance synths. The theme breaks down into a tense Magner-led passage that gradually rebuilds into Shem territory. The MOTH MOTY section starts off slow but builds up to a real rager. Spaga has a drawn out intro jam, based around a kind of deconstruction of the Spaga intro theme. The Spaga jam gets off to an extremely patient start. Haunting and ethereal Magner synths characterize the first part, while Sammy holds a light breakbeat rhythm and Barber plays some mournful notes. Magner introduces the flute patch after a few minutes, and the jam becomes more chaotic as Brownstein latches onto an evil rhythm. The jam builds to a furious crescendo culminating in a fantastic Spaga ending. Spaga has an outro jam, a sinister droning trance vehicle that breaks down into controlled chaos before building back up to a triumphant Helicopters ending.

Excellent show. I don’t know if the highs reach the same level as the highest points of the year, but the show as a whole is probably the most consistent of the tour.

Highlights:

Spaga > Helicopters

Include what might be the strongest full Spaga jam in this segment, which is the easy highlight of the show for me. The first ever Spaga outro is no slouch either.

Hope

I don’t know if it’s decisively stronger than all the other Hopes of the year, but it’s still probably the strongest version so far. The second half of the jam is especially powerful.

Shem-Rah Boo

A fantastic standalone version with an excellent Barber theme in the first half and a strong build to the ending in the second.

Nughuffer

An excellent slow-burn of a Nughuffer jam, getting off to an uncharacteristically mellow start and building to a characteristically powerful conclusion.

Voices > Humu

Cool mellow fall 2000 style Voices theme, with a strong transition into Humu tinged with Sammy’s dnb flourishes.

Stray Observations:

There are numerous song innovations in this show. This is the first Very Moon to be jammed out of the first jam. This is the first Humu with an outro jam. This is the first Spaga with outro jam.

The Nughuffer story alludes to the fact that the band doesn’t want to play it anymore, and is dedicated to Bill Faas.

There are teases of the Get Smart theme in the Shem-Rah Boo .

—Mr. Zan