11/24/00 - Friday, Trocadero Theatre - Philadelphia, PA

https://archive.org/details/db2000-11-24.shnf/

Image: The interior of the Trocadero, an important venue to both Philadelphia and The Disco Biscuits (source: Philadelphia Inquirer)

Review:

The Biscuits open the first Philly show since April with a drawn out ambient intro jam into one of the strongest standalone versions of Home Again yet played. The intro jam gives it some added gravitas, but doesn’t do much musically, while the main jam is a simple, perfect build into the ending. The Voices intro features liberal Gates of Hell usage from Magner. Throughout the tour, Magner has bordered on overzealous in his use of this new toy, but nowhere is its use more egregious than here. However, the main jam is very enjoyable, with a mix of type one Voices groove and lofty fall 2000-style psychedelia. A fantastic Trooper follows, gradually ebbing away from Trooper territory until it lands in a catchy theme around 6:30. Just shy of the 10 minute mark the jam begins to pick up in tempo and shift towards a breakbeat rhythm, and transitions with smoothness into an inverted Overture. If the jam into Overture was solid, the jam out is fantastic. It settles immediately into a mellow type two theme, which builds on its singular idea with extreme patience. It builds to a blissful crescendo around the 13-14 minute mark and breaks down shortly afterward into Trooper territory. The transition back into Trooper is a bit rough, but it doesn’t take away from the awesome jam preceding it. The set closes with the fan favorite combo Stone Waltz. The Waltz has a somewhat spacey breakdown early in the jam and a ferocious peak at the end, but otherwise this combination is standard.

Set two opens with Waves. The jam begins in mid-tempo mellow trance territory. Magner introduces droning acid synths early on, and the jam builds gradually to Waves peak territory over several minutes. After a blistering build, Barber delivers the Waves peak at the 13 minute mark. Excellent version, short and punchy like the 10/21 version, but slightly more patient. The Shimmy jam is percussive and sinister. It moves into a more mellow passage around 11:30, and then a more sinister and digital theme shortly before the transition into Bazaar. Bazaar is jammed out of the final instrumental bridge before the final verse. The jam leaves the composition immediately, but retains traces of it for several minutes, especially in the rhythm section. It leaves behind this signature percussive pattern shortly after the 13 minute mark and shifts towards a more traditional trance jam, with Barber mostly in the background and Magner using heavily distorted trance synths, both working together to craft an infectious theme. It stays major, key, and builds to a gorgeous, Waves-like crescendo around the 16-17 minute mark, before it shifts shortly afterward into Shimmy territory. After a strong Shimmy ending, Shimmy has an outro jam, featuring playful vocalizing, that quickly resolves into a Dribble intro. The Dribble jam finds a catchy groove around the apple butter toast riff. It’s not a “happy” Dribble, per se, but it is distinctly more uplifting than a typical Dribble jam. It stays pretty removed from Dribble territory, returning to the Dribble hits only once, after a blissful crescendo around the 10 minute mark. From here the jam enters another bliss passage, breaking down even further around the 13-14 minute mark. Shortly after this, Sammy reintroduces the Bazaar Escape hits, and the tempo picks up as the jam reenters Bazaar territory. Great build back into the hey hey heys, especially considering that this section had not previously been jammed into. Barber completely misses the cue for the final verse, and there seems to be some confusion about which part of the song they are in (they play the final chorus here and in the previous Bazaar track) but the band recovers from this hiccup pretty smoothly. The set closes with a short and straightforward Lai, and Nughuffer takes the encore slot. The band eschews the drop into the Nughuffer jam in favor of a drop into the cover of Cherub Rock, and, as much as I like that cover, I would likely feel robbed if I experienced it live. The jam out of Cherub Rock is pretty short, but it sates, at least partially, the desire for a proper Nughuffer jam.

A very strong return to the hometown, with at least one excellent jam per set.

Highlights:

Bazaar > Shimmy

This jam features that oh-so-rare combination of innovation and inspired playing that makes it the easy choice for jam of the night. Departing from a never-before-jammed-on section, the jam retains a distinct Bazaar feel until it shifts gears into trance territory. However, the band takes their time reaching Shimmy from here, and allows the jam to reach a blissful crescendo before returning to Shimmy darkness (reminiscent of the best versions from 99).

Overture > Trooper

Both jams in this sandwich merit attention, but I significantly preferred the back half. The jam is inspired and exploratory from the jump, and builds with patience and precision on a theme that evolves naturally back into Trooper.

Trooper > Overture

More conventional than its other half, this jam is still a great example of a well-executed transition into dnb territory from a non-dnb jam.

Dribble > Bazaar

It's definitely more exploratory than usual, although there are some moments that feel a bit like treading water. Nevertheless, this jam is absolutely worth hearing, if for no other reason than the excellent peak back into Bazaar.

Waves

There really isn’t anything special about this version, but man, is it fun to hear Barber murder a Waves peak like this.

Stray Observations:

This is the first Bazaar Escape to be jammed out of, and split up at, the modern jam section. All the great 07/08 versions were jammed out of this section.