Notes From The Drop Zone - 10/18/20

Review:

One of the most important lessons of being a Biscuits fan is that past experience should not dictate future expectations. This band that we all know and love can be so staggeringly inconsistent at times. I tried to go into 10/18 without any expectations that it would be better than, or even on the same level as, 10/17. Even still, I was surprised by this first set. Rivers is perfectly fine as an opener, and has a solid type one build to a great peak. Jigsaw Earth would be more appropriate as an opener, but it has the most interesting moments of the set. The first jam is pretty standard, but the second has Barber use a cool arpeggiator effect that I haven’t heard before. It starts off as a pretty mellow jam with Barber playing around with this effect (mostly successfully), but it quickly returns to Jigsaw territory. As usual, the drum solo in Jigsaw is a bit too long. There is a moment when the rest of the band joins back in for some jamming, and for a brief shining moment the jam threatens to finally break free of its staid strictures, but that moment is woefully short-lived and Allen takes back over for the return to Jigsaw Earth. Aceetobee, more appropriate as an encore if it is going to be played standalone, follows. The first jam is standard but the second has some cool moments, particularly the Norwegian Wood teases from Magner. It mellows out, and sounds as if it’s going to break out into some exploratory jamming, before Barber drops the ending riff. As the song ends, the band fires up a Spectacle intro, an appropriate set-closer to just about any set besides this one. Overall, a perplexing set with a few cool moments.

The second set is much stronger. Spaga is another standalone, but more jammy than anything in the previous set. The first jam is pretty perfunctory for the section, but very energetic. Magner begins on a kind of symphonic synth and moves to piano as Barber takes over for the build into the peak. The second jam kind of follows a reverse trajectory. Magner moves from a jazzy solo on the electric piano to a big crescendo on the virus to conclude the second jam. Astronaut follows, and is jammed out of the middle. Barber immediately finds a gorgeous riff, and Magner takes a little bit to find the right complement. The jam eventually settles into a bliss groove that breaks down into some weirder territory. It builds back up into a triumphant theme, with some excellent Barber riffs. The theme segues adroitly into King of the World with no fakeouts or other crutches. Excellent stuff. The jam out starts off as a Barber solo but quickly settles into a kind of funky start/stop jam with Magner on clav. It settles down into a kind of jazzy jam, with Magner on electric piano and Barber creating a bizarre contrast with the Tractorbeam effects. It’s a jarring juxtaposition but it works very well here. After this the jam builds up to another funk-type jam. Allen kicks up the tempo and the band drops into a We Like to Party intro. The jam out of We Like to Party is spectacular, the easy highlight of the night (unsurprisingly, as We Like to Party quickly became the band’s most consistent heavy hitter after it was reintroduced back into the catalogue in 2018). The jam out actually begins in a very similar vein to the 7/14/18 version, but with the added benefit of Barber’s expanded effects library. Barber makes liberal use of the Tractorbeam effects in the first part of the jam, and it is a home run. The jam settles down into a more mellow, yet still very electronic groove, and this too is masterfully executed. After this theme breaks down the jam settles into a more traditional sounding Biscuits jam, with Magner on some 80s glam rock synths. The band builds this theme to a triumphant peak that had me thinking Jump (mainly from Magner’s synths) but Barber turns on a dime back into Astronaut ending territory. All three themes in the jam are excellent, but the transition back into Astronaut, and the ending itself, are both fairly rough. A nice standalone Morph follows. The first half of the jam is standard Morph funk, but somewhere in the middle there are some Rivers ending teases, first from Barber and then more strongly from Magner. After this, the jam builds up to an absolutely evil theme using the same progression from the 5/26/03 Jam on the River Morph. 42 in the encore slot is an odd choice, especially since it seems like the band doesn’t have the time to do it justice: the 42 theme is a triumphant fist-pumper, but very short.

Overall, this might be my least favorite of the three shows so far. It’s very far from a bad show, but the bar was set very high the first two nights.

Highlights:

We Like to Party > Astronaut

The only real must-hear jam of the show. It’s a multifaceted Tractorbeam style jam that culminates in a kind of 80s rock type theme.

Astronaut > King of the World

The SITA section starts as a bliss theme, breaks down into more sinister territory, before building up to a triumphant theme that segues, masterfully, into King of the World.

King of the World > We Like to Party

The coolest part, by far, of this jam happens in the middle, where Magner shows off his more Spagaband influenced jazz stylings while Barber experiments with some of the Tractorbeam sound effects. The beginning and end of the jam are solid too, but the middle is excellent.

—Mr. Zan