April 21, 2001

The Magner vocal stuff in Spaga is “ Gunter Glieben Glauten Globen.” This nonsensical phrase is heard at the beginning of Def Leppard’s “Rock of Ages” and The Offspring’s “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy).”

The Kamaole is a pretty standard version. Nothing special here. The Plan B is atypical in that it is solidly drawn out, with some cool passages. Things start to pick up at the Pygmy jam. It begins with a mellow repeated Barber line, which evolves into an introspective theme. This theme builds with patience and precision until a breakdown into more chaotic waters around 9-10 minutes in. The transition into Nughuffer is not a tremendous build, but emerges rather suddenly out of the chaos. The Nughuffer is a strange version; the jam doesn’t sound like a typical Nughuffer jam, but it also doesn’t do much to interest me either. The back end of the jam is strong, and it builds to an electrifying peak. The Jon the Barber solo is strong as well. The Magellan is actually a very strong version, with thematic Barber melodies throughout the jam and leading up to the peak.

Hope has a blissful dub-tinged jam that begins to break down around the 11 minute mark with a strange percussive effect. The jam reaches a passage of ambience around 13:30, and the tempo begins to rapidly increase around the 15 minute mark. The jam is pretty clearly in (post-peak) Waves ending territory, but Barber teases the beginning of Hope (and Brownstein follows suit) which is pretty funny to me. The segue into the “Corrinado swam” section, completing the peak-only version from the previous night, is flawlessly executed. The jam out of Waves has a vaguely dub flavor as well. Brownstein’s bass lines are reminiscent of a Triumph jam at times, but Barber’s distorted riffage quickly points toward the ending of Hope. A quick Rainbow Song bustout provides a nice breather before the band launches M.E.M.P.H.I.S. The first jam is a bit shorter than some, but it has a fun theme accentuated with some amusing vocal teases and a strong peak. The outro jam breaks down almost completely, and proceeds at a mellow pace until a rapid increase in tempo towards Munchkin. The Munchkin hits are sloppy but the band manages to recover before the actual drop into the verses. The jam isn’t terribly interesting, which was disappointing for a spring 01 Munchkin. It has a bit of a melancholy streak, but it feels less purposeful here than it does in other versions. Magner’s effects in the end of the jam are very abrasive (I get what he was going for here but it doesn’t work for me). Despite its relatively short length, the Spaga encore is a cool version. The jam immediately begins in a different rhythm than typical, although it gradually evolves to a strong Spaga theme highlighted by an excellent fuzzy bass riff from Brownstein. After the main jam the band sings a playful alternate verse in the ending, which is amusing and very worth hearing.

3/5. I found myself enjoying standalones like Plan B and Magellan as much as I enjoyed the Hope > Waves > Hope. Overall, my highlight would have to be the Pygmy jam.

Stray Observations: This is the first Kamaole Sands of the year. This is the first Rainbow Song since 10/2/99, a gap of 104 shows. Spaga has the alternate lyrics “Spaga emerged in Germany” and “the little kraut’s courage knew no end.” Magner does some weird vocalizations over the second jam that sound like the Swedish chef. Bork bork!