3/27/99 - Saturday, Graffiti’s, Pittsburgh, PA

We've already heard from Walsh on this storied show, but 3/27/99 is one of those shows that is so good, there's no such thing as too much commentary. Or, as one might say, "too much was never enough!" Published here in full is my review of 3/27/99 from last year, remastered and retooled.

Score: 5/5

Highlights: Dribble, Dribble > Waves, Very Moon > HAB, Aceetobee, Run Like Hell > Nughuffer, Nughuffer > Run Like Hell

https://archive.org/details/db1999-03-27.mastered.flac



Run Like Hell > Nughuffer is a very solid opener. The jam is an excellent Barber-led bliss theme that transitions into Nughuffer so smoothly you can barely notice it. The Very Moon is absolutely delightful. 2/18/99 was a very important development for the song, but I would argue that this is the night it became a monster. Solid middle jam, and the funk jam builds up from a very simple funk riff to an absolutely wild trancey Hot Air Balloon intro. Shades of the Shimmy > Basis from Magner around 14:30. The drop into Hot Air Balloon is perfectly executed, but of course Hot Air Balloon is pretty much jamless. The Aceetobee intro is one for the ages, almost completely type two. The jam contains shades of Hot Air Balloon even before Barber teases the intro, and is unnerving, ambient and spooky. The riff that Barber hits on right before dropping into the song is absolutely brain-melting. The final Aceetobee jam is an extremely satisfying end to an excellent set.

Old Skool Biscuits

Set II opens with one of the best Magellans ever played, stretched out and spacey in the middle, just the right length with a very satisfying peak. There is some decent albeit brief type I in the Voices, almost entirely from Magner. The “forces drawn in from afar” vocal sample continues into the Dribble intro, to great effect. This is easily a top three Dribble for me. The steady build of Barber’s riffs coupled with Magner’s flute-like patch is absolutely perfect. The way Barber shreds the final jam sections from 15:00 to 16:15 is in the running for my favorite minute of Barber playing. The Dribble outro is fast-paced from the beginning, with the final word “perfume” echoing in rhythm with the trance beat. By about 28:00 the jam completely breaks down into Waves trance. Barber locks into an excellent theme pretty much right after the track switch. This culminates in a fiery Waves peak. Nughuffer > Run Like Hell is excellent as well, and the transition from dark Nughuffer jam to blissful RLH territory is smoothly done.

📷:Max Dawson

The first encore is a solid Plan B, followed by Magellan Reprise, a perfectly fitting encore to cap off the final night of what at the time was the band’s longest and most significant tour. However, after the band left the stage, they returned once more to deliver the ten minute aural assault that is Waves > Basis. As the story goes, the band did not want to end the tour leaving the Basis from 3/25/99 unfinished. The jam is pretty much entirely type one, and a Basis jam from the jump, but it’s such a cool idea and so well-executed that I wouldn’t even begin to think of complaining.

An easy 5/5. One of the greatest shows of all time. Dribble > Waves is my favorite, but there’s almost no filler, and very little that isn’t some variation of excellent.



Stray Observations:
There is a Hot Air Balloon tease in the Aceetobee intro, more obviously from Barber, but also from Brownie and Sammy as well.
Prior to the second set, Barber says that they’ve played 107 sets in the past two and a half months, and that they’ve been saving the best for last. Prescient. He introduces Magellan as a song about a famous explorer from the 1200s. Only off by 300 years. Maybe he was thinking of Marco Polo?
During the Dribble intro, Brownie plugs the next four Biscuits shows, 4/7-10.
There are little Helicopters teases in the transition from Plan B to Reprise.
Barber replaces “my homeland” with “Pennsylvania” in Magellan Reprise