July 05, 2001

The Morph jam to open the show is quite strong, eschewing the traditional funk jamming for a more atmospheric theme. It is a driving trance theme that breaks down to an eerie, percussive atmosphere in the middle, and builds to a Helicopters-esque fakeout before dropping into a Spacebird intro (the band actually came very close to a high-energy transition into Spacebird, but such a feat would not be accomplished until the next year). Spacebird stays in the box, but the theme in the first half of the jam is perfectly lovely. The band isn’t completely beholden to the distinctive beat, and there’s a pretty cool (though likely unintentional) breakdown before the peak. The outro jam unfolds into an expansive soundscape, building to a strong Morph ending (and blowing out the PA in the process). The Very Moon has a brief diversion into minor key in the first jam, although nowhere near as deep as the early spring versions. The funk jam doesn’t do much for me at all before it leads into a Shelby intro progression. The Shelby jam is that glorious 01 dnb, with a chill vibe from Magner. The tempo picks up around the 6-7 minute mark, and builds up to a Hope-like crescendo around 9, breaks down shortly thereafter, and drops into an inverted Overture. The Overture jam is a cut above the (admittedly strong) average dnb. There is a strong, sinister and repetitive theme running through the jam, which builds to one of the strongest Shelby peaks ever.

News opens set two, and is standard. 7-11, once again, features a massive trance jam into one of the band’s biggest peaks. This iteration is a little less compelling than was Gathering of the Vibes, but there is a cool breakdown in the middle of the jam, and it builds up to a strong peak. The Crickets funk becomes a Basis intro right at the 3 minute mark, with no real exploration between. Barber makes up for the lack of exploration by delivering an absolutely ferocious drop into Basis. The middle jam of Basis is very impressive, with some vocalizations of “Mishawaka” and “amplifier.” It’s short, but sweet. The jam out of Basis is basically a Crickets funk jam almost immediately, and is of no interest to me, but the jam out of Crickets is a solid spacey trance vehicle. It breaks down into a brief dub passage around the 7 minute mark, which is fun and short enough that it does not get old. The Basis peak has some Crickets teases, and is almost a mashup of the Crickets and Basis peaks.

The third performance of Three Days demonstrates the power of this cover. The main jam is a kind of frantic trance rock, and the ending has a nice moment of Rock God Barber. The main jam still isn’t fully developed, at all, but in just three versions the song has grown quite impressively. Magellan has a very restrained, quiet composition. Can’t say I’m a fan. The first jam is dull and overlong. The main jam has a dubby groove and features Magner on the flute patch. It breaks down into a clear Floes intro shy of the 17 minute mark. Not a fascinating jam, but very pretty. The Floes jam is standard, and builds up to a Floes ending/Magellan ending mashup that, while rough at points, is inspired and overall well-executed. Magellan is outro’d out of the reprise section, and the jam develops into an eerie fall 99 style dub jam. Unfortunately, it shifts pretty quickly to a Waves jam and builds to a strong Waves peak. This drop segues into a Pygmy intro, which drop segues into a jamless Spy. Rough. Home Again is standard, and the Mulberry’s actually goes pretty deep. Very interesting version to close out a pretty ho-hum set.

3/5, but really more of a 2.5. The fan-favorite show actually has a tremendous amount of filler, particularly in the third set. Highlight is easily the first, especially the dnb-heavy Shelby > Overture (><) > Shelby.

Stray Observations: This is the first incarnation of the perennial “Bisco Inferno” festival, which would take many forms over the years. Brownie dedicates News From Nowhere to Deb, in honor of their two-year dating anniversary. Basis has a 7-11 vocal tease. Even on the audience recording, you can hear Barber yell “GOD DAMMIT” when he messes up Three Days.