March 30, 2002

Had go chuckle at tpace's inclusion of 2002 in the "lean years" category. Gold in those hills? The hills themselves are made of fucking gold. Once you get to 2003... OK now we're in the "lean years." ;)

Shit, this is a damn fine show! More than that, this one truly deserves to be somewhere on your "best of 2002" list. It ought to get more love. This show is so good, it makes me giggle.

We get off to a great start. Boop dives headfirst into nasty transcefusion. Soon enough there's a sudden drop into Munchkin from Boop. The Biscuits know how to segue between songs better than any other jam band I've encountered, and when they catch you off guard it's really cool. You know they had to have planned this and practiced it beforehand.

The first Munchkin jam might be a bit on the short side, but it's a good one. There's a sudden drop in key - another thing they must have planned and practiced. The second jam includes some start/stop jamming, and it's fantastic. If you listen closely you can hear that Magner is more than ready to jump into HDPF. The second HDPF jam is quite good.

Fiddler is really well done and includes a patient, atmospheric excursion before Brownie comes in with the melodic bass line.

Barber plays some great solos, both in HDPF and Fiddler.

Next up is a Grass Is Green / Spaga sandwich. This strikes me as an odd pairing on paper, thematically speaking. But, like I was saying, the Biscuits know how to segue from anything to anything. And as it turns out, the segue from GiG's major key to Spaga's minor key is soooo well done, so smooth.

One more thing about GiG: the moment that the jam transitions to 4-on-the-floor, there's a handful of people in the crowd who loudly lose their shit. It's pretty amusing. (I was at this show and I get it - I was plenty far from sober, too. Good memories.)

Spaga gets an A for enthusiasm. The jam back into GiG is where things get particularly interesting. The playing is top notch. And again we have a really slick switch from minor to major. They make it looks so easy.

On to set 2.

Songs Of Joy is a nice touch. This is one of those tunes where the band's love of classical music is plainly evident. Give it a listen if you haven't heard it before.

The rest of set 2 is a non-stop seguefest. (And this time it's a Dribble / Crickets / Dribble / Crickets / Dribble, instead of something sliced and diced up with with Jigsaw Earth...!) This is the kind of set list that ought to make you drool. The band's playing is so tight and creative here. There are long stretches where the improv sounds telepathic or pre-composed. It really does. I wish I had the words to convey all the twists and turns. When nearly every damn thing Barber plays is pure gold, it really takes a show to the next level.

The jam between I-Man and Sven is another one of those moments that makes me shake my head and laugh because it's so good I don't know what else to do. How do they come up with this? Aaaaand, AGAIN they drop into the next song (Sven in this case) - and later back into I-Man - out of fucking nowhere. My god.

If you somehow forgot that this was a next-level show, the jam between I-Man into Kamaole will refresh your memory. And don't sleep on the encore because there's an incredible peak in The Overture.

Ahhh! Shows like this are why we love this band, no? I would've loved to be backstage with them after this show. I wish I could've asked them how much time and energy went into planning the setlist and practicing the transitions, because I don't know how you could pull this off without that. They must've been ecstatic after hitting a home run like this.

source: SBD CDs [8/10 good sound but poor soundstage and imaging; but that was the recording situation until the mid to late 2000's, they would record the shows for the house sound; future remastering if multitracked?]

tremendous show.

Highlights: SET 1:: HDPF, GiG ~> Spaga! ~> GiG,

SET 2: Kamaole Sands ~> Mindless Dribble ~> Crickets ~> Mindless Dribble ~> Crickets ~> Mindless Dribble ~> I-Man ~> Svenghali ~> I-Man ~> Kamaole Sands [an hour and a half non-stop] pretty much all of set 2 except for the first 2 debut songs to start the set before.

A- / A

to Mr. Steele...please tell us know you have multitracks of this show, this would be a quality official release (perhaps both Chi shows, they are both very good. This ''Kam Sands'' chunk(90% of set II) has it all.

not much substance here in the last sentence except to pimp the "lean" years (2002 - 2005) for there is gold in those hills.