September 28, 2001

This is a really strong show with plenty of highlights. I don't have much to add to Mr. Zan's review other than to emphasize that this B&C is top shelf, really nasty stuff. One of the best I've heard to my taste.

Particle played on this bill.

A solid Stone Waltz sets the tone for a very strong show. The Triumph jam is another excellent version. The first theme, the Triumph type one, continues until around the 6 minute mark when Sammy shifts the rhythm and begins to incorporate subdued breakbeats. There’s a solid, blissful dnb jam that continues for several minutes before the vibe shifts to the sinister mood more appropriate for Ape. The jam out of Ape has a mellow, major-key dnb theme. It threatens to become more sinister, but breaks down into bliss as it heads towards Hope. Solid jam and solid transition. The jam in Hope leans pretty heavily on the dub influences, and while I usually prefer the dnb Hopes, I have to say it’s a good choice here as the rest of the segment was so heavy on the dnb. A gorgeous theme develops around Magner’s flute patch lines and builds to a thrilling and thematic Barber-led peak. B&C provides a strong conclusion to a strong set. The jam starts off nebulous and blissful, but soon descends into a chaotic and darkly psychedelic passage with start-stop rhythmic effects and heavy distortion from Barber and Magner. The gradual return to B&C bliss is excellent, as is the entire version overall.

Crickets begins with a short, ambient intro jam that isn’t connected to the song at all. The main jam has three strong themes, a Crickets trance and Run Like Hell intro, with a type two dub passage linking them together. The Crickets theme is ferocious trance that comes barreling straight out of the gate, building patiently in intensity. The transition into a dub theme is very well-executed, but the dub theme is short-lived as the jam soon segues into a Run Like Hell intro. Run Like Hell has a lengthy mid-verse jam that gets pretty out there. Some jackass in the audience is shrilly whistling during it, but if you can look past this (or track down the soundboard) it’s pretty great. It starts out as tense, minimal trance, but soon builds to another bliss peak. The jam out of Run Like Hell is the easy highlight of the night for me. It starts off in a sinister atmosphere (and remains in this territory for the rest of the track), with heavily distorted guitar effects. Pretty soon, Magner comes in with some demented keyboard lines, reminiscent of a boss fight in a video game. After this theme breaks down to bare minimalism, Barber introduces another sinister motif (vaguely Shimmy sounding), and the jam builds up along this vein until the track changes and the jam becomes recognizably Crickets. The Crickets funk is extremely frustrating. It starts off solid, but kind of stagnates. After a few minutes, Sammy lays on the Munchkin hits, and he absolutely does not let up. He essentially forces the band into Munchkin. Even worse, there’s no jam—Munchkin drop-segues back into the Crickets funk. A disappointing end to a segment that had started off so strong. The lack of a jam out of Munchkin is even more perplexing given that the band had time for a standalone Fiddler and Sound 1, plus a 20 minute encore. The Fiddler is solid. It’s no 9/1/01, but the second jam does get spaced out (if not fully exploratory) and returns for a massive peak. Sound 1 seems a bit faster than usual, and is much shorter than the previous version (it’s the shortest of the month so far, in fact). It’s therefore not very exploratory, but it still packs a mean punch and yields a fantastic peak. Astronaut takes the encore slot, and the main jam emerges very seamlessly out of the composition. It doesn’t do much for me, like all the others from this month, but the outro is a great mid-tempo trance jam that builds to a strong Run Like Hell ending. The huge peak threatens to collapse under itself, but the band sticks the landing for an awesome ending.

5/5. The low points of the show (Stone > Waltz, Crickets > Munchkin > Crickets) are made up for by a few next-level segments. Crickets > RLH > Crickets is the clear winner, but Triumph > Ape > Hope is great too.

Stray Observations: B&C has Shimmy teases.