April 24, 2001

Chemical Warfare Brigade is the same as ever. Vassilios follows and gets a big cheer. The jam hearkens back to the golden age of Vassilios in the late 90s, with a steady, vaguely melancholy theme built up with extreme patience around an aggressive bass line. The jam breaks down after a crescendo around 10:20. The jam moves from a standard trance groove to a slowed down, dubbier effect. After a cool extended groove, the jam begins to pick up in tempo heading toward breakbeat territory. Most of the remaining jam is tracked as “Svenghali Jam” which is a little silly to me, although I’ve definitely seen worse. It’s a triumphant, blissed out dnb jam, but there isn’t a trace of Svenghali composition, and it doesn’t seem out of place for an Overture jam. Either way, excellent stuff. The jam out of Overture has a very catchy dub groove. Magner in particular is infectious. This theme settles around 11:30 and the band makes way for the transition into Lai, which is very well-executed. Lai itself is standard, as are Wet and Voices.

The Svenghali jam is strong from the start, with Magner using distorted psychedelic synth effects and Barber only contributing a minimalist atmosphere. Barber takes the lead around the 5 minute mark and moves toward a more blissed out passage. Great theme construction and great interplay between Sammy and Barber. Towards the middle, the jam struggles to hold my attention, and it breaks down completely a little before 14:30. It rebuilds in a tense, chaotic groove, and segues suddenly into Jigsaw. The dub jam in Jigsaw is actually very catchy, with great lines from both Barber and Magner, and a cool eastern sounding synth effect punctuating the jam. It builds to an unconventionally strong peak going back into Jigsaw. B&C spends a goodly amount of time in a stunning, gorgeous bliss theme. After 6:30 this theme begins to break down, and before 8:30 the band is locked into a driving, tense theme. This is short-lived, unfortunately: the jam builds to a huge uncomposed crescendo around 11-12 minutes in, and returns to the blissful peak territory. Still, an excellent version. Crickets is a pretty straightforward version; there is no foray into sinister territory here as with the late 2000/early 2001 versions. Nevertheless it is enjoyable, and simply because it’s such a barnburner. After a very patient build, the jam reaches an explosive conclusion beginning around the 8 minute mark but reaching stunning heights just shy of 10. The funk jam seems to have turned a corner as well. Brownstein’s bass lines keep it type one, but Barber develops a pretty cool theme that makes it more interesting than other versions. The final minutes actually deliver a strong, energetic conclusion to this section for maybe the first time ever. The Ladies jam begins at a brisk tempo. Barber makes liberal usage of the 01 muted distortion early on, and develops some great thematic lines using a variety of effects. Another jam, like the Crickets, that is thoroughly enjoyable despite never quite breaking out of the box. Floes has a cool melancholy Barber led jam, which, despite the fact that the rhythm never strays too far from standard, feels quite different from a standard Floes. The build to the ending that begins around 13:30, and the ending itself, are both solid, but the first half of the jam is the real treat.

4/5. I was actually stunned to see multiple people calling this show mediocre on Archive, as I thought it was one of the stronger shows of the tour so far. The Vassilios > Overture (><) > is the clear highlight, but all of the standalones in set two are well-played and bring something interesting to the table.

Stray Observations: After set break, Brownie wishes happy birthday to a bunch of friends and crewmembers, including a belated birthday wish for Magner. There are no Svenghali teases in Vassilios. There are Kamaole Sands teases in the B&C. There are Helicopters teases in Crickets.