May 09, 2001

Great "SRB" but far from the best, imo, from this year or 1.0.
i.e. [3/27/97 Long Island ;
11/17/97 at the Deal out of 'Boop'! ; 4/23/98 UVM to finish the show ; 3/26/99 Blind Pig, before and after ''Vassillios'' (monster) ; 12/30/99 incredible, with it's familiar dancing partner in this era "DTTB"; 10/25/00 Mad is Son, from manic to heavenly ; 4/1/01 CO, insane 20+ min version out of ''Flood', psychedelic as hell, nice DnB, Mags heater; 4/26/01 ATL, fav of the year ; 9/9/01 NJ ; 12/30/01 Philly]

Big ups to the unsung Humu as well as the Spaga(1) outro > MEMPHIS! Great show! Great venue! Saw Kimock there around XMas of '01 If the 1st set was just a tad jammier and longer, it would be top 10 easily IMO.

Peace, ~If You're Not A Head, You're Behind.~

Shimmy is mostly standard, with a cool Barber theme in the buildup to the peak. Humu wastes no time, settling into a melancholy atmospheric trance jam. It remains in this space up to the peak. A surprisingly solid standalone version. I-Man is standard. The first jam is all Barber and drop segues into Pygmy Twylyte. The Pygmy jam sees Magner using the heavily distorted trance synths that were commonplace in fall 2000. Barber dominates the jam, which builds to a thrilling uncomposed peak before returning to the middle section of I-Man. In contrast to some of the previous jams, the I-Man jam is very Magner heavy, and weaves in and out of minor key passages. A surprisingly fresh take on a frequently stale section.

The second set opens with a banner version of Shem-Rah. Magner latches onto an infectious theme immediately, and adapts it to the shifting rhythm section as it moves into a dub progression. This is the perfect example of well-executed Biscuits dub jamming, in sharp contrast to the previous night. Around the 9 minute mark the rhythm shifts to dnb and Magner shifts to a much spacier synth effect. The jam moves through a variety of themes, seeming to build towards an inverted Boop, before dropping into the ending of Shem. This is one of the longer standalone Shem-Rahs, and the first half of the jam is considerably stronger, but the entire thing is strong and merits repeated listens. The MOTH MOTY is gorgeous too. The reworked Crystal Ball follows. The verses have been retouched and are a bit smoother, but the instrumental section still needs ironing out. Still no real jam to speak of. Spaga has an excellent Magner theme which cuts through the minimalism of the jam like a knife. The theme builds to an introspective groove, and segues (too soon, in my opinion) into a M.E.M.P.H.I.S. intro. Regardless, an excellent theme (even if it wasn’t developed to its full potential) and excellent transition. The first jam in M.E.M.P.H.I.S. is atypically mellow and groovy. Magner locks into a strong theme immediately, and the jam builds to a steady crescendo around this. There isn’t much of a peak to speak of, which is disappointing—with a little more time this one could have been a monster. The outro jam is awesome. It moves into Spaga territory before very long, and results in a strong Spaga ending. The second jam in Spaga is pretty enjoyable as well, with Magner using a mellow lounge jazz synth. The show closes with Frog Legs.

4/5. Surprisingly solid. The Shem is the easy highlight, an all-time version. The Pygmy > I-Man and I-Man main jam are great, and the jams out of and into Spaga are excellent as well.

Stray Observations: In the final verse of Spaga, Magner accidentally sings a line early. When he sings it a second time, he adds the words “once again.” Love it. This is the first time M.E.M.P.H.I.S. was used as the meat of a sandwich (at the very least since 4/9/98, for which there is no tape). This would become a staple in 2001 (there are another 3 sandwiches later in the year, not counting the weird Purple Haze mashup from 9/23 or the inverted version from 11/29).