11/2/00 - Thursday, The Music Farm - Charleston, SC

https://archive.org/details/tdb2000-11-02.db2000-11-02akgc1000-rm.flac

Image: The interior of Charleston's Music Farm (source: 10best.com)

Review:

The Kamaole opener soon settles into a mellow trance theme that gets pretty spaced out before making the return to blissful territory. Crystal Ball is jammed out of the instrumental section after the bridge. It is an eerie, foreboding instrumental passage that moves through a variety of themes. It proceeds along a sinister groove before settling into what sounds like will be an excellent, 99 style Vassilios intro. Instead, the jam makes its way to the end of Vassilios for the second ever inverted version. Vassilios is jammed out of the piano solo between the chorus and the bridge. Brownstein’s heavily distorted bass and Sammy’s almost imperceptible tempo shift signals the shift into Floodlights. Floodlights has a frantic, Magner dominated jam, before Sammy settles the jam into a more regular tempo. Magner’s effects quickly become harsher and less melodic as Barber takes the lead in a melancholy theme. Around the 9-10 minute mark, the jam begins to build to a stunning crescendo. The jam finally arrives at the “middle” of Vassilios, which is the single riff at the end of the piano solo before the bridge. An odd completion, no doubt, but one that yields a couple great jams. The jam out of the middle of Vassilios finds its footing quickly, settling into a pretty groove featuring liberal flute synth from Magner. The jam evolves into a bliss theme which builds all the way to the transition. Here, the jam becomes sinister as it moves into the ending of Crystal Ball.

A standard Plan B opens set two, and is followed by Waves. The Waves jam begins with Barber using a strong, amelodic distortion. Together he and Magner craft a foreboding, patient trance jam. Around the 5:30-6 minute mark he eases up on the distortion a bit, moving to the effect that he typically would use in fall 2000 dnb jams. The effect in this trance style jam is captivating. Likely following Barber’s lead, Sammy begins to introduce some breakbeat flourishes shortly thereafter. The jam builds to a crescendo, and at 8:30 begins to settle down into a dnb theme. The jam remains in mellow territory, and shortly after the 11 minute mark, Barber begins to play the Overture ending. He rethinks it and settles back into the jam. This allows the jam to build to a more natural crescendo, and makes for a much more satisfying drop into Overture. The jam out of Overture is a catchy, patient dnb vehicle. The transformation back into trance is smooth. Barber’s playing retains some of the weirdness that his playing in dnb jams often has long after the rhythm has shifted toward more traditional trance, not becoming outright shredding until just before the track change. The build to the Waves peak is excellent. The Confrontation that follows is excellent as well. The jam sees Barber and Magner immediately lock into a sinister, hypnotic theme. Around 4:30, Magner introduces the Gates of Hell, the distinctive feature of this version. Barber uses a kind of digital distortion effect on his guitar for the next theme, which is equally hypnotic but far more triumphant than the last. It remains very trancey until Barber takes the lead and builds to a gorgeous Confrontation ending. Jigsaw Earth has a short, psychedelic jam before the chase section. The trance jam is eminently patient and cerebral, and has a solid build into the chase section. The dub jam is excellent. It is far more energetic than this section typically is, dominated by inspired Barber shredding. The jam builds to a monstrous uncomposed peak. An excellent Jigsaw that foreshadows the monster version a week later. The band comes out for an encore, and plays the first Trooper of the tour. Trooper has an excellent hypnotic locomotive trance jam. Magner utilizes heavy trance synths for a dreamy effect, and the jam builds up to an excellent ending. The band leaves the stage after Trooper, but, likely feeling inspired, returns to the stage for a second encore: Nughuffer. The second Nughuffer of the year is fantastic: aggressively trancey while still being thematic and melodic, and Barber brings it all in for a massive peak. The Jon the Barber section is excellent as well.

This is an excellent show, one of the best of the year. The first set contains what may be the most inventive and unique palindrome ever played, and the second set, while not as interesting on paper, is even better.

Highlights:

Waves > Overture

More exploratory (although less consistent) than the other half of the jam. The transition to dnb from trance is excellent, and the dnb theme is strong.

Overture > Waves

The energetic and explosive Waves ending is only the icing on the cake. The jam returns to a trance rhythm early, but Barber’s riffs retain some of the style he uses for dnb jams.

Jigsaw Earth

Perhaps the strongest version yet. While both jams are impressive, the dub jam is the one that has grown more and is more interesting.

Confrontation

Another best ever version contender, the Confrontation has a sinister jam with a triumphant return to the peak. Great Gates of Hell usage too.

Trooper McCue

Excellent locomotive trance. Not as spacey as the Camp Bisco version, but equally psychedelic.

Nughuffer

Short, powerful version.

Stray Observations:

Amusing banter alert before Kamaole. Lexingburg’d.

This is the fifth Biscuits palindrome.

This is the first split-up Crystal Ball.

This is the second inverted Vassilios, and the first split inversion of any song (if you do not count the Boop from 10/31). Although it is notated on setlists as dyslexic, it is 100% inverted.

There are Kamaole Sands teases in the Crystal Ball.

There are Floodlights teases in the Waves.