April 28, 2001

The House Dog jam is type one all the way, but this is still about as good as first jams in House Dog get. Barber hits a sweet riff immediately before the peak. The Party Favor section starts out pretty bland and aimless, but soon evolves into the typical roaring ending. Spacebird proceeds along its usual type one progression. Jigsaw has a typical type one rapid-fire four-on-the-floor pre-chase jam, and then a mid-chase jam that is absolutely stunning. After a standard trance theme, the jam heads into dnb territory around the 10 minute mark. Shortly after 12, Magner abandons the trance synths for more of a marimba effect. The jam breaks down into chaos before the return to the chase riff. Excellent stuff. The remainder of the track is a pretty standard dub vehicle into “Dublights.” Dublights actually has a pretty cool, melancholy jam that manages to go beyond Floodlights territory. The Waves is a very strong version, type one but eminently patient. It begins with the same marimba effects as from the Jigsaw, and builds with exacting patience into a ripping Waves peak. Absolutely stellar ending.

The second set opening Mulberry’s goes nicely deep. Magner delivers a beautiful piano theme in the first jam, and Barber delivers a strong, spaced out second jam with another iconic peak. As good as type one Mulberry’s gets (compare to 5/1/99—I honestly think this one comes out on top). The Crickets jam begins as the usual breakneck trance, without much to speak of until around 6:30 when Barber lands on a really sweet little theme. From here the jam breaks down slightly, and enters distinctly Munchkin territory around 8:40. The band takes their time in this section, breaking down into an almost ambient space jam still within Munchkin territory, and rebuilding to a strong segue. The Munchkin jam opens as standard bliss trance, but delves into a more tense mood just shy of the 7 minute mark. It doesn’t quite get type two, but it’s not Munchkin territory either. It breaks down after a chaotic passage just shy of 10 minutes, and begins to build into Crickets peak territory. The build is solid, but the peak is one of the strongest ever. The funk jam is standard, as is the Spectacle that follows. The Vassilios has a very light, mellow groove jam. The tempo picks up right around 9:30 as the jam ventures towards Munchkin territory. Solid type one in the build to the Munchkin ending. The encore Pilin and Aceetobee are both standard.

4/5. It’s really more of a 3.5 though. The Jigsaw jam between the chase sections is my highlight, and the Crix > Munchkin > Crix is great as well, but the show falls off hard after that.

Stray Observations: Prior to set two, Brownie dedicates the set to Paulie, who broke his foot. Brownie definitely implies that they would play Nughuffer, but no such luck. 7:33 in Munchkin sounds almost exactly like an aborted > Svenghali.