September 30, 2001

The show opens with the even-then-rarity, Straight, No Chaser. The Dribble that follows is fantastic. It’s an absolutely sinister take on the Strobelights Dribble, with a furious Barber-led crescendo. The outro jam isn’t much to get excited about, however, and the segue into Spacebird has all that fall 01 hesitancy. The Spacebird jam is basically a Spectacle intro from the start—nowhere near as blatant as, say, 4/14/01—but there’s a strong bliss current running through the theme. Strong peak into Spectacle. Spectacle is standard, but it has a strong outro jam that takes its time leaving Spectacle territory. The band settles into a strong fall 2001 groove that builds up to a jazzy crescendo featuring Barber on the muted distortion. It breaks down, and begins a gradual build to a Spacebird ending. After some impressive developments in the month of September, The Tunnel and Sound 1 are both fairly short and restrained. The Tunnel is standard, but Sound 1 is at least a ferocious exclamation point to the song’s best month (though it obviously can’t touch the titans of 9/6, 9/12, 9/15 and 9/21). The band latches onto an excellent, almost grungey theme shy of the 6 minute mark, and launches it into the stratosphere.

Shelby opens set two, and the jam begins with a kind of moody atmosphere. It quickly returns to Shelby proper to complete the perfunctory version. The next segment has always struck me as… misleading. Reactor > Pygmy > House Dog > Pygmy > House Dog is, in fact, a full Reactor that drop segues into Pygmy, which jams (by way of a Basis fakeout) into a full House Dog (which has a Pygmy Twylyte tease in the middle of two composed sections). The Reactor is short, even by standalone Reactor standards. Not much else to say there. The Pygmy intro is nice and slowed down, and the band plays it at this tempo before speeding up to the standard. The jam out of Pygmy is pretty directionless until just shy of the 5 minute mark when the beat suddenly changes to a slower groove. This shows potential, but pretty soon Brownie is introducing the Basis bass lines. There are some enjoyable grooves, but overall it is not terribly interesting. Additionally, the buildup to Basis is not satisfying at all. Barber drops the chords way too soon for my liking. The House Dog jam is pretty standard, but for a strange breakdown in the middle before it starts building up to the ending. The Party Favor jam has some excellent piano work from Magner, giving it a much different feel than the typical Party Favor jams. It builds to an unconventionally blissful and strong peak that melts in the last seconds back into the Party Favor ending. A solid end to a pretty weak segment—especially one which was intended to be the meat of the final set of tour. 7-11 has a decent towel jam, not exploratory at all but even today they rarely are. It threatens to go deep, but after the breakdown it just returns to the composition. The 7-11 trance jam is far more subdued than a typical version, and undertakes a melancholy exploration. The first theme crests and breaks down into some cacophonic atmosphere, before building up to a gorgeous Basis peak. Basis has an “outro” into nothing, which is kinda cool? The encore Mr. Don is used to finish off 7-11, but I’d have rather heard a full Don (IMO, there’s a good reason they shelved the 7-11 ending for so long). Don starts out with a short ambient intro, which is pretty cool. The main jam, too, gets off to an unconventional start. I don’t know if this is the “Rhapsody in Blue” tease I was promised, but it’s a definite classical vibe. There’s a great building section around 8:00 that is very enjoyable, and leads to a gorgeous Don-esque crescendo. After a sudden breakdown, the jam builds to a standard 7-11 ending.

3/5. The main segments are pretty hit-or-miss, with the second set segment being mostly miss. Nevertheless, the show manages to pick up enough points here and there to scrape a 3. Highlights include Dribble, Spectacle > Spacebird, and 7-11.

Stray Observations: This is the first Straight, No Chaser since 12/31/99, a gap of 131 shows. It would be played once more (3/7/02), after which it would be shelved indefinitely. Prior to set two, Brownie reintroduces Ollie, the sound guy, and greets Matt Irabino, the former lighting director who was on tour with The New Deal. Brownie asks for Jamie Shields’s autograph, and does so again after the Shelby. During the encore banter, Brownie thanks the crowd for coming out during these turbulent times, in what I believe is his first reference to the 9/11 attacks since 9/12. Barber extends the thanks to the crew. There’s a vocal tease in the final verse in Don, but I can’t understand it.