7/12/00 - Wednesday, The Crowbar, State College, PA

The band fittingly opens what would be the final show at the Crowbar with the only song to debut within its walls: The Overture. The Overture jam is a Barber dominated DnB vehicle, and, besides the distinctly more blissful mood than a typical Overture jam, is not very different from usual fare. Around 9:30 the jam breaks down; Barber fades more into the background and Sammy begins to gradually shift towards a more standard rock beat (throwing in some breakbeat fills every so often to keep things interesting). Barber builds up to a solid peak and the band drops into a short type one Aceetobee intro. Aceetobee is a pretty fitting choice for the evening as well, as the lyrics deal with transition and change. Jordan wrote the setlist for the evening, and I have to wonder if he considered this at all. The first jam is a rousing major-key vehicle that isn’t exploratory but peaks hard. The second gets pretty spacey almost immediately, with Magner layering symphonic wave synths over the minimalist rhythm. The jam steadily grows weirder, and around 14:45 begins building to a chaotic primal crescendo. After this very weird section begins to break down around 18:30, the jam begins to move toward Fiddler. Fiddler has a very standard first jam, and the second kind of meanders for a bit until the band locks into a driving groove around 8:15, at which point it becomes essentially an I-Man intro. The I-Man middle jam is scrambled and chaotic, showing great potential, but it ends sooner than I’d have liked. The main jam is considerably longer; it’s pretty standard but features some excellent Barber. The uncomposed peak he develops around 21:10 is beautiful. After two fairly standard jams, the I-Man outro is unconventional and fantastic. At 24:38, Barber adroitly shifts from standard I-Man bliss to a more tense mood. Shortly afterward Magner moves into the spotlight, crafting a superb atmospheric theme. It gradually begins to move back towards bliss territory, with a gorgeous crescendo building over several minutes up to the 31 minute mark. After a Dribble ending tease, the jam begins to break down, but quickly builds back up to the type one of a Fiddler ending. Spectacular stuff. Fiddler is outro’d as well, and the outro jam emerges very naturally out of the closing chords. Some of Magner’s synth effects hearken back to late 98-early 99 styles. The mellow outro jam begins to build steam, and by 6:30 it has become a driving trance jam. The brooding melancholy theme gradually moves toward triumphant territory as the band approaches the ending of Aceetobee. Another excellent jam, out of an unconventional section. The jam out of Aceetobee makes for the third outro jam in a row. The jam pretty immediately becomes a DnB jam, but it’s decently exploratory before it makes its inevitable return to Overture to complete the palindrome set. The bliss theme that builds to a crescendo before it breaks down around the twelve minute mark is almost Svenghali-esque, and the remainder of the jam after the breakdown is pretty clearly headed towards Overture. An excellent conclusion to a very strong set.

The second and final iteration of the instrumental Loch Ness Monster opens set two. Unlike the version from 6/27/00, which is unfinished, this version seems to be a full version which drop segues into House Dog. The Loch Ness Monster jam begins spacey with a steady trance beat, and it evolves into more chaotic and Barber-dominated passages, with a rock beat akin to a M.E.M.P.H.I.S. jam, but with more melancholy playing from Barber and Magner. A pretty solid jam, even if a segue into House Dog would have been cooler. The House Dog jam doesn’t break any new ground, but it is a solid outing especially from Barber, who murders the peak. The Party Favor jam is more exploratory. By the sixteen minute mark Magner locks into a repetitive trance theme, and shortly after Sammy shifts the beat to an almost carnivalesque rhythm. The jam melts smoothly into the beginning of Waves. The Waves jam dips into a type two bliss passage that descends into cacophonic weirdness before building back up to an aggressive Waves ending. After the peak, the band drops directly into the middle of Boop. The Boop main jam begins in a very ambient mellow space, melancholy in mood until the band gradually develops a happy theme that takes them into the post-peak end of Waves. Magellan is a very strong version, with a short and spacey middle jam and a powerful main jam with rock god Barber, but it doesn’t break any new ground or quite reach the level of the fall 1999 Magellans.

The “extra-special” encore opens with the final version of Riddles (a song I would be more than happy to see busted out). This is probably the strongest of the three versions of the song, but it doesn’t get super deep either.

After Riddles, this “extra-special” encore becomes even more special. Now, according to multiple reports, Brownie was very visibly in attendance that night. According to some, he said he was there to officially give his blessing to Jordan as the Biscuits’ new full-time bassist, while others were certain that his presence at the show indicated a return to the band. Any ambiguity was dispelled here, immediately after the Riddles. The crowd cheer becomes a roar as, presumably, Brownie walks on stage. Barber tells the audience “we decided… that we just wouldn't be the Disco Biscuits without one Mr. Marc Brownstein,” and the roar becomes deafening. After six agonizing months, Brownie was back.

You can hear the crowd cheering for numerous Brownie songs, but in the end the band decides to play Helicopters, one of their quintessential anthems. An archetypal trance-fusion jam emerges, but breaks down around 5:30. The jam rebuilds around Sammy’s syncopated drum lines into a triumphant Svenghali ending.

The palindrome set is considerably stronger than the second, which suffers from a few gimmicky drop segues and a drawn out standalone Magellan. Pound for pound, I actually might take 6/27/00 over this show; however, there is plenty of musical merit to this show beyond the sheer excitement of Brownstein returning to the band. Those highlights are delineated below:

Highlights:

I-Man > Fiddler

My easy highlight of the show is this massive I-Man outro, which moves through many moods until what is almost a Dribble fakeout before settling into a type one Fiddler ending.

Fiddler > Aceetobee

Fiddler is rarely used for big segments, and even more rarely is it outro’d. This jam presents a compelling case for utilizing Fiddler more. A spectacular trance jam that resolves into a glorious Aceetobee ending.

Helicopters > Svenghali

Am I grading this jam too generously because it’s Brownie’s first jam with the Biscuits in over six months? Probably. Still, for my money, this is better than anything else from the second set.

Aceetobee > Overture

A cool bliss theme coming out of the Aceetobee intro that slides into darker territory as it approaches The Overture.

Party Favor > Waves

Despite the relatively short length, this jam is both exploratory and playful, making a rare segue into the beginning of Waves.

Stray Observations:

This would be the final show performed at the Crowbar in State College. The band’s first show at the Crowbar was 11/5/97, and famous shows played at the venue include 9/9/98 (which featured the debut of The Overture), 1/18/99, 4/7/99 and 9/13/99.

In the opening banter, Barber refers to the show as “the continuation of the reconfiguration of transcendental combinations.” He humorously introduces “on drums tonight, Mats Vilander,” and introduces himself as “Hank Berry, CEO of Napster,” who had testified before the U.S. Senate the previous day.

During I-Man, Barber says hello to “Ernie, Thomas, and whatever the other guy’s name is.”

There is a Dribble ending tease in the I-Man outro.

Set one consists of the second palindrome segment played by the band.

In the banter prior to set two, Barber tells the crowd that the setbreak music was music they had made on the computer (maybe they were already working on They Missed the Perfume). He tells them that they would only play Jethro Tull songs for the rest of the night, and berates some fans for mocking his wardrobe. Jordan plays a little bass riff that sounds eerily similar to the riff from Grass is Green, but I have to assume it’s a coincidence.

This is the first jam into the (post-peak) end of Waves, and the first time Waves was split beg/mid and end.

Barber dedicates the long encore to Misty, who drove 12 hours to the show but just made it in time for the encore.

—Mr. Zan