September 16, 2001

A short punchy I-Man opens the show. The band wisely wastes no time on feet-dragging mid-verse jams and goes all in on the two main jams. Both are pretty much type one the whole way, but the second has some gorgeous themes from Barber and some solid interplay in the buildup to the peak. Astronaut has a tense, brooding jam that never quite breaks out of the box. Astronaut, once again, has an outro jam based on the SITA riff. This jam actually manages to get decently exploratory (more than I was expecting based on the setlist). Some great “spooky” Magner lines around the 16 minute mark as the tone of the jam becomes alternatingly menacing and somber. The jam teases the SITA riff briefly as it very gradually makes its way back to bliss territory for the B&C segue. B&C is a strong version, even if it doesn’t tread any new ground. It makes the traditional dive into tense/sinister territory before returning to B&C proper, with a HUGE peak for good measure. Story is a fantastic version, at least on a par with 9/1 and likely better. It sounds as if Magner has been listening to The New Deal, as his work in this jam sounds very Jamie Shields-esque. The jam stays in a pretty brooding atmosphere until Barber marshals the rest of the band towards the peak. He stays mostly in the background on the muted distortion until he explodes to the forefront in a big way around the 11 minute mark. Great version. After the banner Story, the rest of the set closes out with standard versions of Pilin and Voices.

The “Cheese Eating Contest” Jam is easily one of the strangest ways that a set has opened (even stranger that it was later repeated). The music is fun, but hardly interesting tdb music. The Morph has a tense and atypical breakdown in the middle that features Magner on the rave synths and rabbit hole synths in equal measure. I wish they had explored it longer, as before long it’s just a Morph ending progression. Oh well. The Shem-Rah jam is very interesting. It begins as a slow groove with some very simple themes from Magner (use your imagination and you can hear hints of the Haymaker Shem here). Unfortunately, the jam doesn’t really evolve beyond this, and sort of just lumbers into M.E.M.P.H.I.S. territory. M.E.M.P.H.I.S. has the standard rock god Barber first jam, with a huge peak to set it off. The outro struggles for a bit but settles into a cool bliss theme that builds up to a strong and wildly chaotic Shem ending. After this the rest of the set is a limp to the finish line, with standard versions of relative rarities Pat & Dex and Jamilia.

2/5. The second set was surprisingly dull, and the first doesn’t have quite enough to make up for it. Highlight is the Story, followed by Astro Outro and B&C.

Stray Observations: I’d swear that Brownie is playing the bass line to “Bitch” by the Rolling Stones at the beginning of the Morph jam. I’d say it was a coincidence but it goes for several measures. This is the first Pat & Dex since 4/27/01, a gap of 35 shows. This is the first Jamilia since 5/1/01, a gap of 33 shows.