12/1/00 - Friday, Doremus Gym - Lexington, VA

Image: The Doremus Gym at Washington & Lee (source: Digital Commonwealth)

Set I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwz7um7wLVY&list=PL3ae--2v0hrne44gHOpPDRG1kxvDK5DBG

Set II: https://archive.org/details/db2000-12-01.SBD_RM.flac16

Review:

The Unspoken Rhyme that opens the first set has an expansive and dreamy dnb jam that builds to a symphonic crescendo as it peaks. A strong version. Shem-Rah Boo has a short and playful intro jam. In the main jam, Magner locks into a great theme beginning around 8:30. It has moments that are cool, but overall this one doesn’t do much for me, and Magner’s synth choices are particularly abrasive here. It breaks down into a strange passage shortly after the 16 minute mark, and rebuilds into a drawn out transition into Confrontation. The transition is pretty cool, but the excessive Gates of Hell usage detracts from it. The Confrontation jam is a pretty solid Barber-led version. It begins as a mellow and blissful theme, but Barber takes over around the 7 minute mark and builds to a monstrous Confrontation peak. Mr. Don has a not short (about 3 minutes) triumphant intro jam. The main jam is excellent. It begins as a standard Don jam with mellow Barber strumming and mildly piercing Magner synths. It breaks down into a stunning orchestral passage, with ambient Magner synths and Barber soundscapes. It settles into a subdued groove, and by the 17 minute mark it has begun the march into Shem-Rah Boo. Unfortunately, the Shem-Rah Boo ending track is missing, so I can’t comment on the conclusion, but the jam itself is excellent. The Radiator is a similarly strong version, beginning as an ambient trance jam and building to a powerful, percussive crescendo. One of the strongest Radiators ever.

The much more famous second set opens with Hot Air Balloon. This version spends the requisite time in type one territory before breaking down into ambience. Over several minutes the jam settles into a fun groove. Magner seems to be the chief architect of this theme, developing a call-and-response type riff and seeming to signal the drop in tempo that begins around the 12 minute mark with the cooing birds synth. What follows over the next minute is probably the best executed transition into Floodlights yet. The jam out of Floodlights shows promise, but the theme is almost immediately scrapped in favor of a Crickets intro. Disappointing, but the Crickets jam is much better executed. It begins with a simple yet haunting trance theme built around a sinister Magner riff. As the jam develops, Magner holds onto this riff even as the jam leaves departs haunting territory in favor of a more triumphant theme. The jam appears to be returning to Crickets for several minutes, as Barber takes over and delivers a stunning crescendo several minutes prior to the actual “peak” of the jam. Shortly before the 11 minute mark, the jam leaves the unbridled enthusiasm of Crickets territory and heads toward the more deliberate triumph of a Hot Air Balloon ending. By the 12 minute mark the jam breaks down completely as it heads toward Hot Air Balloon. Fantastic stuff. The Run Like Hell intro is surprisingly fleshed out for a late set two iteration. Haunting repetitive Barber lines are underscored by industrial droning synths, and the theme builds to a powerful peak after the 8 minute mark. The mid-verse jam in Run Like Hell is on the short side (around 5-6 minutes, short compared to some), but it is powerful and very sonically textured. The jam out of Run Like Hell is basically a Crickets jam right out of the gate, but it’s certainly a patient one. There isn’t really anywhere for the rhythm section to go, so Barber and Magner just keep layering on idea after idea until the jam is full to bursting. The peak is explosive, and even the funk jam has a little extra sauce to it.

This show (especially the second set, which circulates more widely in remastered soundboard audio) is almost revered, but I found it, as a whole, to be more average-solid.

Highlights:

Crickets > Hot Air Balloon

It moves through multiple themes, all within Crickets territory, before finally making the transition into Hot Air Balloon. Vastly improved from the 11/11 iteration.

Mr. Don > Shem-Rah Boo

This pairing has yielded a sleeper favorite in the past (8/28/99), so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to have enjoyed this one as much as I did. Something about this combination seems to make the band want to break down into spacey ambient jamming, and it works really well here.

Radiator

A top tier version, and easily the best of the year. Tense atmospheric jamming and a stunning crescendo.

Run Like Hell > Crickets

It’s all type one, but man is it good. Include both Run Like Hell jams in this consideration—for my money, they are more interesting than the admittedly more cathartic jam into Crickets.

Confrontation

Nowhere near as exploratory as others from the tour, but Barber absolutely murders the peak.

Stray Observations:

This is the first time the band jammed into the beginning of Confrontation.

Prior to Hot Air Balloon Brownie promotes the next show on Sunday, 12/3, which he describes as the second show of the “Virginia bonus tour.” Amusing banter between Barber and Brownie.