September 21, 2001

Magellan opens the show, and the first jam has a little bit more to it than usual (though still completely in the box). The main jam goes pretty deep, even if it never fully leaves Magellan proper. The unconventional rhythm is accentuated by Barber’s usage of the muted distortion effect beginning just shy of the 14 minute mark. He does not wait long before returning to a standard tone and building to a Magellan peak. The Svenghali jam is a Barber-led, and he nails it. The theme he comes up with (almost immediately) is both gorgeous and deceptively simple. He dials up the grunge factor around the 10 minute mark with the muted distortion as the jam makes its way to a crescendo. It doesn’t peak very hard, and mellows out a touch going into Overture. Still, an excellent jam and segue. The jam out of Overture, on the other hand, never quite finds anything interesting to say until it returns to Svenghali territory and delivers a compelling ending. Another 20+ minute Spacebird follows. The jam isn’t as strong as recent behemoth versions, but strong nonetheless. It features an almost frantic, Barber-led build and a strong peak. Plan B is a standard, solid way to end the set.

Three Days remains my favorite perennial cover, and this is a stronger-than-average version. Barber delivers a deliciously simple groove, and the jam is fairly standard until the rhythm section shakes things up a bit and Magner comes in with some industrial synths. The set really gets cooking with 7-11, which kicks off a fantastic segment. The towel jam contains the first and most complete iteration of the Lobsterfari theme. The trance jam is droning and atmospheric, and breaks down very gradually into a slow groove. This builds patiently to a Dribble intro. This version of Dribble is the only non-Strobelights version in the month of September, and the jam is pretty excellent. It’s a split version, so it gets fairly deep before a Dribble hits fakeout and a segue into Confrontation. Confrontation has a gorgeous blissco jam with some hints of a Munchkin intro. The Dribble ending absolutely crushes, and remains in the blissful key of the preceding Confrontation jam (the ending riff is played in a different key, and it works really well here). The Dribble outro is very short and not particularly compelling as it segues into Sound 1. The Sound 1, on the other hand, is an excellent version even for the time, vying with 9/6, 9/12, and 9/15 for the best version. The theme is downright sinister, building up around an ascending Barber riff before breaking down somewhat around the 12 minute mark. From here the jam builds up once again to another sinister crescendo before a sudden switch into Sound 1 territory shortly after the 15 minute mark. The rest of the show is fairly standard. Floodlights > 7-11 doesn’t really have a jam, and the Home Again doesn’t push the envelope.

4/5. A strong showing in Colorado gets the band back on track after a couple of ho-hum performances in the plains states. Sound 1 and Confro > Dribble are our biggest highlights, but the whole second set segment is worthwhile, as are the Magellan, Spacebird, and Sven > Overture (><) > Sven.

Stray Observations: This is the only non Strobelights Dribble of the month. There are Munchkin Invasion teases in the Confrontation. Amusing banter alert after Sound 1. Barber sings happy birthday to some girl, and references the 9/16 cheese eating contest. On the soundboard, you can hear the other band members telling Barber to hurry it up.