August 08, 2001

The unannounced show opens with the 7-11 rework. The towel jam is still nearly nonexistent here. The main jam is excellent, with an infectious and very digital Magner lead developing almost immediately. The first theme breaks down around the 11 minute mark, and the rhythm shifts from the more breakneck trance into a steady, almost dubby, groove. Another strong theme emerges from this section, which breaks down again around the 14 minute mark as the jam returns to aggressive trance territory. The jam that emerges from here is actually extremely light and playful, with Magner on the piano, only shifting into darkness as the track changes. The jam out of Shimmy remains eerie and melancholy for several minutes, but builds to a spectacular major-key crescendo before breaking down into ambience in the final minutes of the track as the jam segues into Spacebird. Spacebird seems to have turned a corner yet again, and this is easily the strongest version yet. Magner carries the day with a well-developed, somewhat eerie theme, and the rest of the band hold space for him without being beholden to the Spacebird composition. The return to type one around 9:30 happens very smoothly. Excellent jam and excellent segment overall. After the barn-burner opening segment, the rest of the set is fairly average. Spy is jamless, and Floodlights has a cool groove-oriented jam that yields to a melancholy theme before the band builds up to the 7-11 ending.

Svenghali opens the second set. The jam gets off to a slow start, but towards the middle it becomes very catchy once Magner takes the lead role. The final minutes, beginning around 8, are pretty great, with Barber’s playing complementing layered effects from Magner. Barber utilizes that 2001 distortion effect (somewhat similar to a style favored by Tom Hamilton) before building to the peak. Excellent version. The debut of Astronaut is still a little shaky compositionally, but other than most of the lyrics, the structure is pretty similar to modern versions (but for a final verse after the suspended in the air section). There is no real jam to speak of, but the composition sort of fades into what is immediately apparent as a Basis intro. The Basis intro is a catchy one for the first few minutes. It seems to reach a peak around the 5 minute mark, but the band sustains this energy for another couple minutes before the drop. There is the briefest bass-slap jam in the middle section that doesn’t really go anywhere. The jam out of Basis is pretty mellow, and doesn’t really go anywhere. Barber develops a nice theme that builds to a strong Confrontation peak, but I found myself losing focus during this jam and had to force myself to pay attention. The Confrontation peak is excellent. The jam out of Confrontation coalesces around a spacey keyboard line. It breaks down around 9:30, and builds up to what sounds like a Crickets peak before a turn into the end of Basis. After the Basis segment, the show coasts to the finish line. The Tunnel is a bit stronger than the debut, with an energetic Barber solo, but it remains consistently type one. The debut of Coat follows. I know a lot of people who are into this song, but I dunno. B&C closes out the show, and it remains type one. The shredding leading up to the ending, however, is some of the most furious I’ve heard.

3/5. The first set is decisively stronger, especially the 7-11 > Shimmy (><) > Spacebird. Basis > Confro (><) > Basis is not as strong as it looks, but it has its moments, and the show kind of falls off after that.

Stray Observations: An MC introduces the band in the 7-11 intro. This show contains the debuts of Coat and Astronaut. Additionally, the show contains the first ever 7-11 ending. Floodlights > 7-11 ending would become a common pairing. Barber refers to Coat as the “Motown” song.