April 27, 2001

The show opens with a trifecta of unpromising standalones, although I will say the Radiator jam is pretty sweet in the middle with a great little atmospheric groove. The Morph > Down to the Bottom > Morph pairing is delightful, and manages to defy expectations at multiple turns. The Morph jam soon evolves from the standard electro funk into a pleasant trance theme, and the segue is executed very well. The Morph jam is solid, but the Down to the Bottom jam is fantastic. It begins as a minimalist trance vehicle, toeing the line between pleasant and somewhat unsettling. It evolves into a more symphonic passage, which is already very cool, but around the 10 minute mark the jam breaks down into a fantastic groove. A surprising amount of exploration is packed into such a short jam.

The second set opens with the reappearance of Boulevard, which is followed by Mr. Don. The Don has a very pretty ambient jam, but I had to subtract points because of the almost shockingly weak ending. Very disappointing, especially after the barnburner Don from the show a week previous. The Very Moon has a drawn out intro and drawn out first jam. The jam doesn’t really evolve beyond Very Moon territory like the best versions from 2000 and earlier 2001, so it’s really only stronger-than-average type one. The funk jam is very interesting, breaking down into melancholy ambience and rebuilding into a tense groove. The second half of the jam, over six minutes, is tracked out as Triumph, and is pretty much entirely repetitive type one as the band struggles to pull off the segue. The Triumph jam is pretty noodly, but starts to find focus as the track changes and the jam heads into Basis. Basis segues pretty quickly out of the bass slap section into Widow in the Rain, which drops back into the bass slaps. Meh. The main jam is a standard version, with Magner on the distinct acid synths, until about the 8 minute mark when it begins to enter an ambient passage. It remains in this space for some time, beginning to rebuild along an unconventional route around the 12 minute mark and reaching Basis ending territory around 14. Solid peak and solid version overall. The Pat & Dex encore is average.

2/5. Close to a three but the big segment in set two didn’t really deliver. Very Moon > Triumph was cool, but Morph > DttB > Morph is the winner from this show for sure.

Stray Observations: According to legend, this is future drummer Allen Aucoin’s first show. Mr. Don has some distinct Hope teases from Brownie. Pat & Dex has “roll tide” vocals. This show features the reappearance of two new songs that were already becoming rarities: the first Boulevard in 13 shows and the first Widow in 19 shows.