November 29, 2001

On November 29, the Biscuits embarked on their most ambitious run ever: ten shows in ten days, a feat not since replicated. 11/29 still stands as a remarkably high point in that stretch, although there were other shows that rebottled some of the same lightning. The show opening Morph Dusseldorf is a high point for sure: the jam immediately drops into a type two, four-on-the-floor progression. This is such a rarity for Morph that the jam is almost immediately a highlight, but it earns more points for the progression that would later become the ending to The Great Abyss more than four years later, and for the smoothly executed and patient segue into Aceetobee. After a standard (but fiery) first jam in Aceetobee, the band launches into an unconventionally tense and sinister theme that builds to a huge uncomposed major mode peak. The segue into Spacebird still requires a breakdown, unfortunately, as it would until 02. The Spacebird doesn’t go as deep as the versions from September 01, but probably as deep as any since then. The rhythm section doesn’t get too far removed from Spacebird, but the melody drifts into the minor key for a solid portion before returning for a massive peak. The Spacebird outro gradually coalesces into an Aceetobee jam; it’s not exploratory but it’s patient and well-executed, and yields another strong peak. The Overture jam starts off reminiscent of a spring 99 version (it actually reminds me strongly of 5/1/99) before moving into more purposeful, edgy trance-rock. It builds to a thunderous, percussive crescendo before an especially smooth transition into Waves. The jam is short but very worth hearing for the segue alone. Waves itself is pretty standard, but features more typically (for fall 01) great Barber.

Triumph opens the second set, and right away the jam enters the major mode. It remains in this mode for the whole time, and is essentially a Triumph jam in the key of Hope. It’s an interesting idea, but it doesn’t really go anywhere interesting for me. The segue is a bit clunky too—Barber lays down the Hope riff over an aggressive percussive pattern, and the jam breaks down into Hopesque ambience before building back up to the segue. Like Triumph, Hope doesn’t waste much time before it’s clearly an intro for the next song, but unlike the Hope intro, the Basis intro is quite enjoyable and well-executed. The middle jam is nice and long, but it doesn’t leave type one territory. Instead, there are two distinct type one themes. The main jam is a nice, drawn-out bliss theme with a strong peak. It’s distinct from almost every Basis in that the whole jam, rather than just the final few measures, is uplifting and triumphant. The Dribble jam is pretty mellow and staid. There isn’t much development and overall it is not very interesting. The M.E.M.P.H.I.S. peak is excellent Barber shredding, but not quite enough so to redeem the jam. M.E.M.P.H.I.S. is inverted for the second time, and the jam out retains the celebratory major key sound even as it returns to Dribble. The Dribble outro breaks down to mellow atmosphere before the return to Hope, but it still feels pretty perfunctory. The Crickets encore has an awesome theme in the first jam, with Magner on a repetitive droning synth and Barber making excellent use of a fall 2000-esque psychedelic distortion. Great stuff even if it doesn’t get too far beyond Crickets. The funk jam is standard, and there’s a drop segue into the ending of Overture after the final verse.

4/5. Though the second set is pretty weak other than the Crickets and Basis, the first set is strong enough to earn it an above-average score. Morph is the clear-cut highlight, and one of my favorite jams of the year, but Aceetobee > Spacebird > Aceetobee is worth multiple listens.

Stray Observations: This show was billed as having a fan-picked setlist, where fans voted on their favorite setlist. This is referenced in the banter before set two. In reality, the setlist was just chosen by Beezer, who apparently lost the votes. Brownie refers to the vote as “a fix” before Triumph, but it sounds like a joke. Brownie introduces Crickets as the band’s “least favorite song.”

'The Peach Party' [8.0 / 10] [A-] There is a lot more to praise about...MUCH more but I just want to prop up this incredible duo {+ a "regular" Basis} to start set II : Triumph ~> It has a nice cruising altitude in the jam section for a while until everything slowly ramps up to an absolute psychedelic storm of beautiful proportions. Very trippy...controlled trips. Happy frenzy. ~> Hope ~> The transition is cruising along nicely until the familiar 'Hope' chords peak around the curtain and blast off. A wonderful version with Barber and Sammy adding a little more mustard. Hope is one song where I enjoy Sammy's original take more than Allen but he's good too :) :) :) mullet and all. ~ Basis they enter on the momentum of the Hope crescendo to it's full mania until that good 'ole Basis drop...Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh ; Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh. Good grief those stellar 1.0 Basis' are unreal lol. Right away you get a funky DnB jam going with Mags laying down some nasty riffs. Although this Basis is a LITTLE inconsistent, it still rocks because it is pretty different and, Mags is the main man until the ending. In all honesty, depending on your mood, this can be a stellar Basis or an average one. In a tour and year of RIDICULOUS Basis', I would call this one average to semi-erect.

It has to be mentioned not only how well played the 1st set AC2B~>Spacebird~>AC2B is but more so on the approach. A very originally played trio with nice surprises....but, aside from a few minutes at the end, this Spacebird is boring, repetitive and circle upon circle of Mags laying down a theme that FINALLY gets picked up and goes somewhere very cool but it takes a while to get there. I guess the engine had to warm up?!

PS~~PLEASE do not omit the encore. It is top shelf! The Crickets is amazing.

if you are looking for a nice old disclogic SBD flac of this show, gimme a jingle. I sometimes get to use 'Raven Studios' here in town to learn and then fix live recordings to my liking. And I did some tweaking to this show because it was kind of flat sounding. turtlepace72 at gmail dot com

love ya