2001: Every Show Ranked (part 3)

NOTE: for part 1 (99-50) see https://discobiscuits.net/blog/2001-every-show-ranked-part-1

for part 2 (49-11) see https://discobiscuits.net/blog/2001-every-show-ranked-part-2

10. 4/20/01 - Friday, The 9:30 Club - Washington, DC

The first of three 4/20 shows to be played at the 9:30 Club is likely most famous for the unprecedented and fantasy-setlist-dream second set segment of Frog Legs > Waves > Frog Legs > Ladies, Spacebird > Kamaole > Frog Legs. Seriously, look at that. You have to imagine that someone won an award to be able to write a segment like that. Despite the beauty of the segment on paper, it doesn’t quite melt faces quite as hard as it should. More interesting are the better than average standalones: the Floes (which is one of the first really great versions and a harbinger of the song’s golden age in the fall), the Shelby (with a strong funk intro and searing peak) and the Don (one of the greatest versions of 1.0). Most interesting is the spectacular Voices > Spectacle > Voices, which manages to turn two of the most underutilized songs into a thrilling combination.

9. 9/28/01 - Friday, Belly Up Tavern - Solana Beach, CA

I have racked my brain, over multiple listens, for some reason that this show could be as underrated as it is. Perhaps that, nestled among three other mediocre shows in an underserved market, it is just overlooked. Perhaps it is the relatively safe setlist that puts people off, or maybe the atrocious Crickets > Munchkin > Crickets sours people’s perception of the show. Whatever the reason, it’s a poor one. 9/28 is strong enough that even within such a legendary month it stands out. Triumph > Ape (><) > Hope is a brilliantly constructed and executed segment, with shining moments of brilliance, but it is the Crickets > Run Like Hell > Crickets that elevates this show to legendary status. The Crickets jam has two distinct themes, and the Run Like Hell jam (one of the finest of the year) has a demented type two vehicle that shifts with no lost momentum into a Crickets peak.

8. 9/12/01 - Wednesday, Newport Music Hall - Columbus, OH

The first show after the 9/11 attacks is loaded with pathos, particularly in its opening and closing. A few short months after its debut, The Tunnel cements its role as a song played to honor the dead. The Basis is probably the greatest version in yet another very strong year for Basis, and the main jam in particular covers the entire spectrum of emotions that the audience was likely feeling on that day. In between those two bookends, the Svenghali, Humu, and Sound 1 are all contenders for best ever, the Crickets is massive, and the M.E.M.P.H.I.S. is head-and-shoulders the best version of the year. On paper it looks singularly unimpressive (there is only one segue in the entire show), but in execution it is pretty close to perfect.

7. 9/6/01 - Thursday, Higher Ground - Burlington, VT

After an hour-long opening salvo of above-average versions of Confrontation, Spaga and Crickets, the band dives headfirst into one of the most ambitious sandwiches of the year: B&C > Sound 1 > B&C. The Sound 1 jam is in the top half of September versions (no small praise) and the outro is perfectly fine, but the B&C > Sound 1 is one of the most challenging and versatile jams of the year. The second set dips a bit (Magellan > 7-11 > Magellan is nowhere near as good as it should be), but contains probably the best standalone Shelby Rose post-2000.

6. 9/8/01 - Saturday, Webster Theatre - Hartford, CT

The first set is pretty mellow on paper, with only the set-closing Ladies delivering a consistently high level of energy. There’s a pretty solid Triumph > Floes, as well as one of the first versions of The Tunnel to attempt to break out of the box, but of course there would be better versions of all of these songs later in the month. The simple fact is that, were it not for the second set, we would not be talking about almost any of it. The band delivers the only true palindrome set of the year with true aplomb. The first jam, the fan-favorite and still likely the greatest Reactor ever played, shows just how much the band’s sound has changed between the spring and fall tours. It isn’t constricted in the way that 02 jams sometimes are, but it is considerably more focused than the jamming on the spring tour and earlier. And while the Reactor > Crickets remains the fan-favorite, I will always have a soft spot for the Story > Overture (><) > Story that anchors the segment.

5. 12/29/01 - Saturday, Roseland Ballroom - New York, NY

Most famously, the set contains the first ever inverted Shelby Rose, sandwiched in between Crickets. The Crickets > Shelby is an explosive rager, with one of the greatest Shelby peaks ever played, and the Shelby > Crickets is a patient, thematic build to one of the greatest Crickets peaks ever. The second set falls off after this segment, but I would encourage you all to check out the often overlooked first set, in which just about everything is worth hearing—from the fastest Eulogy ever, to the short and punchy trance jams in 7-11 > Munchkin and Spacebird, to the expansive and exploratory Very Moon > Run Like Hell, the first set is one of the rare missless sets of the band’s career.

4. 12/30/01 - Sunday, The Electric Factory - Philadelphia, PA

The penultimate show of the New Year’s run narrowly tops the previous night, even though the second half of the second set falls off here as well. The Magellan > Floes is a more fully fleshed out version of the iteration from the Mishawaka, and the Floes > Sound 1 > Floes segment that follows is every bit as strong as the more legendary 12/28/01 Sound 1 sandwich. The show is most noted, of course, for the GOAT-contender Triumph, which fully embodies the totally Biscofied dub style often referred to as “pirate funk.”

3. 9/22/01 - Saturday, Fox Theatre - Boulder, CO

The strongest show of the year’s (and possibly the band’s) strongest month is pretty much perfect, both on paper and in execution. From the opening furtive notes of the Triumph jam, the show is fully locked in. The second set, anchored around another stellar Reactor, invites obvious comparison to the 9/8/01 palindrome. While it lacks comparable iconic moments to the Reactor > Crickets, it is more consistently strong front-to-back—in fact, the whole show is. This is one of a very select few shows that does not have a single dull moment.

2. 3/31/01 - Saturday, Fox Theatre - Boulder, CO

Although the fall tour is pretty universally regarded (and by me as well) as stronger and more consistent than the spring tour, the year’s biggest highlights are found in the first month of shows. This show, for which the band’s new historian Max Dawson wrote the setlist to celebrate his birthday and joining the Biscuits’ organization, is a daring and adventurous endeavor coming on the heels of a few weeks worth of mostly safe, uninteresting playing. It is less consistent than the shows before and after it on this list, but the first set is one of the most iconic in the band’s history, in particular the Mindless Dribble > M.E.M.P.H.I.S. > Jigsaw Earth. Though the second set isn’t nearly as strong or consistent, it contains the delightfully wacky Jigsaw > Ape > Jigsaw > Ape, as well as a particularly strong jam in M.E.M.P.H.I.S. > Mindless Dribble. Max Dawson used his impressive knowledge of the band to craft a brilliant setlist, and the band absolutely delivered on his vision.

1. 4/7/01 - Friday, The Majestic - Detroit, MI

4/7/01 is by no means perfect; it is not front-to-back consistent in the same way that 9/22/01 is (after a pretty-much-perfect show opening segment, the first set closes with two very average standalones), but it’s close. The aforementioned opening segment, Spaga > Shem-Rah Boo > News From Nowhere, is pretty great, but it really is pretty standard: Spaga and Shem-Rah are GOAT-contender standalones, but only the Spaga outro gets very deep. The second set is the stronger of the two, and the reason this show is ranked at the top. The Nughuffer is the best version ever, delivering a ferocious trance onslaught in the birthplace of techno, but it is the Munchkin > Vassilios > Waves (><) > Munchkin is the show’s indisputable highlight (despite being seemingly much less frequently mentioned than the Nughuffer or the first set segment). The Munchkin > Vassilios in particular has always been one of my favorite Biscuits jams of any era, fully representing what I love so much about Spring 2001 at its best: it is thematic and exploratory without being aimless, the playing is tight and focused, and Barber in particular nails every note he plays while still managing to craft gorgeous themes on the fly. It has long been a personal favorite, and the math bears it out: this is the best show of 2001.