September 14, 2001

Magellan has a nice spacey jam with some solid atmosphere to get things warmed up. The Spaga is quite drawn-out. Barber utilizes muted distortion that contrasts sharply with Magner’s very clean synths. Overall, it’s a pretty strong Spaga jam, but Barber really carries it more than he should have to (Magner remains in the background for the entire jam). Magner delivers a strong space-synth solo in the second jam, and then this Spaga launches into an outro. It isn’t much of a jam, and it breaks down and segues very smoothly into a mellow Ladies intro. Ladies is a patient build to a strong ending, but nothing that breaks the mold. The Munchkin is the easy highlight of the set, with a unique type two dub progression that gradually emerges out of a mellow and somber Munchkin jam beginning around the 6-7 minute mark. After a few minutes of solid exploration, it returns to Munchkin territory around 9:30-10:00, and spends some time patiently building to the peak. Great version.

The set-opening Floes might be the best standalone version yet (or ever). There is some great textural atmosphere in this jam, mainly from Magner but really from all four members. Barber’s feather-light touch in the early phase of the jam allows the expansive atmosphere to unfold, and Magner utilizes a variety of synth effects, including fall 2000 style trance synths, to achieve the desired effect. The rhythm section prevents the jam from stagnating, allowing the energy to ebb and flow, and there are multiple tempo shifts and breakdowns. After a breakdown around the 14-15 minute mark, Magner comes in with some rabbit hole synths and an unconventional jam passage builds to the ending. The Astronaut is a bit shorter than the 9/2 version, but it is also ended successfully, so...tradeoffs. The jam is pretty straightforward and Barber-led. The outro jam is based on the SITA riff, and it too is not very groundbreaking. It’s pretty much SITA type one until it becomes 7-11 type one, but there’s a cool, if short-lived, groove within that space. The jam out of 7-11 is the first ever out of the towel jam, which is exciting, but it too is entirely type one, which is less so. The band uses this fairly dub-heavy section to segue into Dublights, which is disappointing—I wish they would have left that kind of setlist crutch back in spring 01. Floodlights briefly has a furtive, desperate minor-key jam before it soon resolves into a type one Run Like Hell jam. Easily the coolest part of the segment so far, and it was woefully short. Run Like Hell doesn’t push the envelope, but for such a short version it packs a heavy punch. The first theme is a trancey Magner-led vehicle, and the second is a monster Barber peak. After this segment the band treats the crowd to a 30 minute encore. The short Coat is pretty terrible, but the 27 minute Jigsaw is definitely worth hearing. After a perfunctory pre-chase jam, the band launches into a fantastic trance jam. The trance jam has two separate themes each with a raging, uncomposed peak. The dub jam quickly leaves behind any semblance of dub territory for a more upbeat and blissful groove, and builds to a thematic ending that sounds solidly outside of Jigsaw territory before the ultimate drop back into the song. Very solid version overall.

3/5. The big second set segment is, overall, a big dud. However, there are a few all-timer standalones, chiefly the Munchkin and Floes, that lift the score out of the gutter.

Stray Observations: This is the last Boogie Stop Shuffle of 2001, and the second-to-last ever. It is the first since 4/25/01, a gap of 35 shows. This is the first outro’d Astronaut. Of the nine Astronauts played in 2001 after this date, six are outro’d. All seven have a style of outro unique to fall 2001, in which the SITA section is reprised after the song ends (similar to the Spacebird outro from 9/9/01).