October 18, 2002

<{con-sis-ten-cy}> at the Roxy

My 'Triumph' on the SBD is pretty mucked up in low levels and horrible digi-monsters but the segue gets cozy and 'Shem' is an old trusted friend. 2002 was another CRAZY touring year, this fall no exception...Oct.9 to Nov.10 is one long run with minimal days off. What can I say...they ate well and exercised like athletes. If you believe that, the check is in the mail. So Barber's voice crackles here n there but nothing too bad, it's the mumbling lol, I think I'd be a 24/7 mumbler if in his situation. Shem jam starts aimlessly to be honest. But once a direction is agreed upon Sammy doubles up and the game of boomerang has begun with Mr. Magner. This goes well when Barber lays down some nasty rhythm on his new Strat. That Biscuits tension and release has begun and the dance floor is yours to scuff and slip. Out of this we end the tune on a quasi-80's pop jam. Cool. Weird. Whatever.

Great bass in the short but sweet 'Spec'. IMO, this tune is one of Brownie's best showcases for how creatively powerful he can become at the drop of a dose/hat. Not a bad version but OK. You've heard carbon copies.

Things are heating up..."Ladies". After the opening sequence, they stay in neutral jam seeing where to go. After 9 mins of neutral jamming they finally pick Waldo on the map and go for it. The rest is Mags and Barber in a louder n louder, higher and higher jam until finally Jon goes headfirst in a joy drop from heaven! What a happy ending if not a little predictable. Very good. Yes, I am a walking contradiction of the most confusing type. If we hung out, we would love each other, I promise.

Oh shit, my SBD just went mono. Allllllllrighty then. I really hope the soundman fixes this, the soundstage and imaging was getting good there...anyway.

Tunnel is good. Its what I do when I'm alone. My stereo sound is back :)

Robots. I adore 1.0 Robots. This one....yes is excellent. As the reggae sets in you can hear an audible from Jon to Marc...see if you can pick it up. Regardless, the 1st jam is not very good (IMO)...it really comes off as lazy and emotionless yet there is enough psychedelia in the spirit of this section that it saves it from another Robot dying. At around 14 mins the 2nd jam is on another level....redemption. Slammin' Sammy is in a groove. At this point, I really like the sound of the deep keyboard parts. If I was a musician perhaps I could enlighten you more but I ams what I ams. A Barberless 'Robots'!!?? Not really but he's really in a secondary rhythm guitar mode tonight. So far. Nice ending; evil.

The next section is brought to you by angels. "Rock Candy ~> King of the World ~> Aquatic Ape ~> Basis for a Day" Don't you just fn' LOVE when a rockin' "Candy" plays at a show? At home it's one thing but live I always thought of it as a ceremony song of dance and happiness. Girls dancing in their sun dresses, drenched with MDMA and confusion. Such a lovely boogie. At 6:30 mins into RC they are pretty much in Blissco land with nice funk and a sick bassline. Nasty. What an ending/melting into... 'KotW' ~FloAt lIke A BuTtErfLY~ Barber pops on this one. The midway slow n sexy part bridges both halves nicely. Man, Marc is sounds extremely confident tonight (perhaps not the proper term) every pluck is as it should be, as it seems.

More reggae dub as they slip into my favorite " 'Quatic Ape' of the year. Nice opening sequence. A little madness, a little power rock. This tense jam is crazy goodness. BIG CHEER! Wahooooo. "Webs on our hands....." 8 minutes in. Marc it! From here on out is where the magic is revealed. How do you analyze/summarize ecstasy? You don't so go get her, for the remaining 10 minutes are original, psychedelically driven and more importantly a wonderful testament to the complete ownership of their songs and all possibilities both revealed and hidden. They find this spot and never veer away from it until the segue. This band has always been music first (unless outside forces and substances take over your topics of thought) This Ape is the Disco Biscuits. Cheezy but honest.

'BFAD' sloppy start as they find out which off ramp to take. Actually, less sloppy rather than just chill. It's intended weirdness I suppose. Love that slappin' Marc. Another Batman theme enters the main dish at the 9ish minute o'clock point. Man, Allen is indeed a God amongst men but damn! was Sammy ever good at keeping that poignant yet simple power beat just sit there for however long it took, like here, and eventually one by one it seems, each member joins the merry-go-round. Barber has it together as he is in focus for the remaining 5 minutes. Brilliant jam. It feels so good ladies and gentlemen....it truly does. Listen to Marc in between Jon's note-bending situation! Beautiful.

The remaining portion of the show has a couple of nice moments like 'Sister Judy's' outro jam into the ending of 'RC'

8.5 / 10 music 7.0 / 10 sound (dislogic SBD; mono to stereo and back at least 3 times) 9.0 / 10 vibe / "je ne sais quois" / ambiance 2.0 / 10 my "review". what a babbling buffoon.

love