4/29/00 - Saturday, Trocadero Theatre, Philadelphia, PA

https://archive.org/details/db2000-04-29.AKG480.flac16

The band opens the first Philadelphia show of the year with Unspoken Rhyme. The jam is great uplifting jungle in the style of a Svenghali jam, and after a crescendo it breaks down into a mellow groove that segues into Crystal Ball. Crystal Ball seems to be heading towards another perfunctory version, but shortly before the four minute mark Barber cuts out completely, saying “I think I broke the amp.” The rest of the band is forced to settle back into a Crystal Ball groove while the gear is repaired. One of my favorite jams from 1999 arose from a similar situation, so it was hard to not get my hopes up. The jam spends a few minutes in very type one territory with Magner on the organ, but he quickly takes charge and crafts a brilliant trance-fusion soundscape. Sammy breaks the jam down around the eight minute mark, and his drumming becomes frenzied and tribal. Around the twelve minute mark the jam settles back into traditional trance, and shortly afterward Barber can be heard again. Somewhat surprisingly, the band makes their way back into Crystal Ball after this long detour. Easily the best Crystal Ball yet played, and a spectacular multifaceted jam. The outro jam back into Unspoken Rhyme is pretty straightforward but enjoyable. The first Stone > Waltz since 10/29/99 follows, and is actually very good. Waltz doesn’t stay completely within the box, and builds to a great peak. After Waltz, Mauricio comes up for a rendition of Crickets. The first jam doesn’t have all that much that sets it apart from the other iterations from this era. The jam is layered and atmospheric, but it never reaches the next level and kind of peters out. About the same for the second jam. There isn’t a whole lot offered by these Mauricio jams that hasn’t already been done. After Crickets, Barber invites guest vocalist Meredith Motley to help on Soul is Shaking. She is a good fit for the song, which remains completely type one.

The Disco Triscuits at the Trocadero, 4/29/00 (discobiscuits.net)

The second set opens with another iteration of Bring Your Ass to the Party. Its lyrics still in a state of seemingly constant flux, the basic structure of the song remains the same. The jam section is still a Magner-led dance party, and is right away better than all but one jam in the first set. The jam quickly builds to a Magner-dominated peak around 6:30, then breaks down before building up again to a more Barber-led (but full-band) peak around 9:30-11. It sounds almost as if the band tried to slam right into Floes, but it doesn’t work and they need to take a step back and let the jam break down. There is some cool mellow atmosphere in this section of the jam going into Floes, but the jam has to break all the way down before the band starts up Floes, which kind of kills the momentum. The Floes jam is not a segue; it’s a full Floes that drops into Down to the Bottom, which is disappointing. Despite this, it’s actually really cool. It starts off really subdued, more so than usual, before building on a cool progression that is built off of the Floes drum beat but somehow sounds completely unlike Floes. This theme is very cool but short-lived, and the jam builds up to a standard Floes ending before a drop segue into Down to the Bottom. The jam in Down to the Bottom is pretty straightforward but fun overall. After this, Mauricio returns to the stage for the debut of Munchkin Invasion. Like with Crickets, it’s hard to divorce my expectations of what Munchkin should sound like from the reality of the Mauricio versions, but I try. The jam is pretty cool; Magner does a great job crafting atmosphere on the rabbit hole synths, and he creates a very suitable effect for this jam. The jam is cool, but even taking the handicaps of the Mauricio format into account, the ending is pretty rough. Barber invites bassist Anthony Rogers-Wright to the stage for the next segment which opens with House Dog. The first jam in House Dog is shorter than usual, very to-the-point and high energy. The second jam is even shorter, but pretty cool nonetheless; it builds to a chaotic crescendo before settling down into the Vassilios groove shortly before the track change. The transition into Vassilios is butter-smooth, like the best from 1999. The Vassilios jam is on the short side as well, but Magner builds to a triumphant uncomposed peak before Barber leads back into the dark madness of the Party Favor ending. The jam is great but oh man, the composition of the ending is a mess. A very solid segment despite the rather short jams (and somewhat painful ending). The Widow encore is jamless. For the second encore, Barber invites Anthony back up, and says he knows how to play two other Biscuits songs, Story and Aceetobee. Unsurprisingly, Aceetobee gets a much larger cheer and so Sammy starts it up. The Aceetobee is pretty short, but the second jam is very pretty and shreddy, and the guest bassist holds his own here too.

Bassist for a day Anthony Rogers-Wright and Aron Magner (discobiscuits.net)

Another contender for my least favorite Triscuits show, with only one, maybe one and a half, must-hear jam(s). Those highlights and more below.

Highlights:

Crystal Ball

Some amp problems lead to an unexpected detour through a pretty thrilling type two passage with an excellent Sammy breakdown. A must-hear jam.

7-11

The typically great early 7-11 jam moves through two distinct phases, one Magner-led and one Barber-led, before a breakdown into ambience.

Floes

It seems like everyone but Sammy is doing something different than typical Floes in this jam. For that reason, it would be a stretch to call it type two, but it’s still very worth hearing.

House Dog > Vassilios > Party Favor

The guest bassist holds his own on a rather challenging segment, and despite its short length it achieves some interesting moments. The jam into Vassilios is a well-executed segue, but the jam into Party Favor is pretty great trance-fusion.

Stray Observations:

After Waltz, Barber mentions that they played the Troc in 1996 and played Stone Waltz there. The show he is likely referring to is 3/21/96 at the Troc, which opens with Stone but does not contain Waltz.

At the beginning of set two, Barber announces that there will be a Camp Bisco this year, to raucous applause.

This is the last time the ending of Down to the Bottom was played until 2/15/07, a gap of 468 shows and nearly seven years.

Barber dedicates House Dog to the Philly Heads and says “we never got to play this one here.” He must mean the Troc, because the band played House Dog in Philly at the TLA for New Years Eve not four months earlier, and two months before that at the Irvine Auditorium.

At the encore break, Barber thanks Brothers Past for opening the show. This was the last Brothers Past show with their original lineup that included Jim Hamilton and Joe D’Amico.

—Andy

4/22/00 - Saturday, Keene State College, Keene, NH

https://archive.org/details/db2000-04-22.flac16

The opening Svenghali is excellent. One of Mauricio’s drum effects causes some nasty distortion in the recording, but that is mostly mitigated within the first few minutes. Magner is the king of this jam, crafting atmosphere with a variety of effects, and Barber builds up to a great peak (as much as can be expected in a Mauricio jam). Mulberry’s quickly deviates from the standard formulation. The first jam (a section that had never been explored before) quickly leaves the song structure, with Magner incorporating waves of ambient synth sounds accompanied by more involved playing by Barber. The jam develops a mellow trance theme and, beginning around the nine minute mark, some syncopated drumming from Sammy. It continues patiently through this space until a crescendo around the 13-14 minute mark, in which it sounds like the band is going back into the middle of Mulberry’s until Sammy drops the Spaga ending signal. Fantastic jam. Spaga is followed by a short and vaguely Storyesque intro jam that drops into a slow, groovy Pygmy. The jam out of Pygmy, like the composition, is equally slow and groovy. Sammy’s drumming indicates pretty early on that the jam is a Floes jam, although it sounds almost like a Spectacle build at points. The build into Floes is very gradual, and the ending sounds much slower than usual. The jam, while very pretty, stays at this mellow tempo for the entire time and isn’t terribly interesting.

The Disco Triscuits at Keene State 4/22/00 (discobiscuits.com)

Floes has a very drawn out ambient intro which features the band members making funny cooing sounds. Worth hearing for the amusement factor. The Floes jam is pretty short and it is very apparently an I-Man jam right away. You can hear a few fans cheer, presumably when they realize it’s I-Man, the first one of the year. The first jam in I-Man is pretty mellow, which is not a negative on its own, but it’s also pretty aimless and stumbles back into the middle rather than peaking. The second jam is a good deal better, with the band patiently building on a driving trance theme. However, like the first section, the second jam kind of falls apart before the supposed peak. Overall, not a particularly remarkable segment. After I-Man, Mauricio comes out for a rendition of Basis. I have to say that the Basis intro jams with him are perfectly enjoyable—as long as you don’t have expectations that they will sound like Basis intro jams. As usual the jam is layered and atmospheric, and the “peak” comes out of nowhere. The middle is nicely jammed out as well, and this section actually works really well with Mauricio—the jam is spacey and atmospheric, and the return to the composition is actually flawless. The Basis main jam is very blissful and pleasant. Barber and Magner work really well together crafting an ambient atmosphere around Mauricio’s drum machine. The jam seems to be heading back towards Basis until a breakdown around the 25 minute mark. The drop into Helicopters is somewhat sudden (of course), but overall a very solid jam. The jam out features some great thematic synth work from Magner, including particularly prominent use of the “choir of angels” patch. A breakdown around 6:30 sounds almost like a Crickets ending, but the jam gradually returns to bliss and a Basis “peak.” I wonder if the band was doing these breakdowns to make the “peaks” seem like less of a letdown. Despite the obvious handicaps of the Mauricio setup, this segment is well-played and is probably some of my favorite music of the night so far. The third 7-11 seems to have some new lyrics, but it’s hard to be certain because Barber is not singing very clearly and the vocals are drowned out by the instruments.  The rest of the song and the drop into the jam are all nearly identical to the previous versions. The jam quickly leaves the major key and slows down to a steady groove, with melodic riffs from Barber. Magner stays in the background until about 6:15 when he comes in with the trance synth. Barber resumes command of the jam around the eight minute mark, and teases a return to the major key (vaguely Helicopters sounding) shortly before the track change. He builds up to a decent if kind of clumsy Mulberry's peak. The Story encore is typically great, and the jam begins with somber ambient synths and busy Barber noodling. Magner takes over around 6:30, accompanied by a chaotic drum breakdown, and the jam is still atypically dark. Barber takes over again at 9:30 and builds up to a glorious triumphant peak.

Barber shreds (discobiscuits.com)

Overall, the best music from this show is at the beginning and the end, with some pretty rough and/or uninteresting parts in the middle. The highlights are listed below.

Highlights:

Svenghali

I might like it more than the 3/11 version. Excellent atmospheric Mauricio jam

Mulberry's > Spaga

Perhaps my least favorite show of 2000 so far has perhaps my favorite jam. A dark, spacey exploration that covers a ton of ground without becoming stale.

Basis middle

Spacey and atmospheric, the way a Mauricio jam should be. The transitions out of and back into the song are impressive as well. 

Helicopters > Basis

Excellent thematic work from Magner. Loses steam before the ending, but still worth hearing. 

7-11 > Mulberry's 

Kind of unconventional 7-11 jam when compared to the past two, with a cool drum breakdown in the middle. 

Story

Story and 7-11 are staking their claims as the strongest new songs, and this version is another point in its favor.

Stray Observations:

This is the first type two exploration of the first jam in Mulberry's Dream. The middle section was not played.

This is the first show of the year without any new song debuts or guest bassists.

—Andy

Correction: I-Man had already been played once before in 2000, on 3/11 at the Wetlands Preserve. However, it was an acoustic version, so we can be forgiven for not counting it I think.

4/21/00 - Friday, Middle East, Cambridge, MA

https://archive.org/details/db2000-04-21.flac16

The opening segment of this show looks pretty spectacular on paper. Mr. Don, the first of the year, opens, and the band sounds pretty cohesive in the composed section. The jam that emerges is pleasantly atmospheric and mellow. Sammy keeps things on cruise control for the first half, allowing Barber and Magner to craft a blissful melody, but the Professor begins to mess around at the eleven minute mark, adding elements of chaos to the jam. Shortly after the band settles into a more tense theme, calling to mind at points a Shem-Rah Boo ending. After another breakdown, in a moment of some apparent confusion, Sammy shifts to a more breakbeat style of playing, and the other two stumble a bit but catch up nicely. The rest of the track is an atmospheric jungle jam, breaking down, in the first minutes of the Widow track, into almost ambient guitar and piano over Sammy’s breakbeat. Barber sings the first verse of Widow over the breakbeats, creating a cool effect that, to my knowledge, was not done again. The Mr. Don jam is excellent and absolutely worth hearing, and this unique debut is only the icing on top. After an instrumental bridge, Barber yells “let’s sing it again,” and they do that, this time performing the song in the more traditional style. The end of Widow features a bluesy solo from Barber, before breaking down into ambient bliss. The jam into Unspoken Rhyme stays mellow and blissful the whole way. I definitely expected it to go jungle, but I liked what they did with it just the same. The keyboard peak of Unspoken Rhyme is played pretty early and hesitantly, and the band spends a few measures building it up before singing the ending chorus. There is the shortest of pauses between the end and the beginning in which a count can be heard, but its inversion is impressive nevertheless, especially considering that this was only the second performance of Unspoken Rhyme and only the third song to ever be inverted. The jam out of Rhyme is a pretty short rock groove that leads into a comparatively drawn out Story intro. The Story jam is probably the most distinctly Biscuits sounding jam of the night so far. It begins as a Barber-dominated trance-rock jam, but around the twelve minute mark Barber takes a backseat to Magner, who crafts an infectiously catchy theme over Barber’s grooves. The two deliver a much-needed energetic peak to cap off this relatively mellow segment. After Story, Sammy moves over to bass and Mauricio comes in for the second ever Crickets. The first jam is great atmospheric driving trance, but, as with pretty much all the Mauricio jams, it doesn’t have a satisfying peak. In fact, the band seems to lose steam rather than build it as they go into the peak. As with the debut, the funk jam is more interesting to me than the “main” jam (if it was even considered the main jam back then), possibly just because that style was so much more compatible with Mauricio’s. I found myself liking the Crickets debut a lot better than the sophomore effort.

The second set opens with the first Above the Waves of the year. The Waves jam unfolds like a standard early 1999 version, a tense trance jam that approaches Waves ending territory but gradually becomes more blissful until a crescendo shortly before the thirteen minute mark. Here the jam breaks down and slides smoothly into a Crystal Ball intro. I had expected Crystal Ball to be unfinished just based on the setlist, but it’s actually a pretty concise full version, with the majority of the track taken up by the outro jam that brings things steadily back into Waves. It’s a nice mellow build with a red hot peak, but overall nothing all that remarkable. Looking at the setlist and seeing Voices, I was dreading a potential Mauricio sit-in, and the banter track after Waves confirmed my fears. I have no idea why they would try this song with this configuration again after the mediocre first attempt, but try it they did. I’m far from the biggest fan of Voices generally, and with Mauricio the song just does less than nothing for me. After Voices the band brings up guest bassist Bill Stites for the remainder of the show. For a guest bassist, Overture is a fairly complex choice. Our guest handles the composition with aplomb, and the jam, though somewhat short and maybe not groundbreaking, is better than anything done with Mauricio in this show. The Magellan encore is solidly well-played but standard.

Barber and Bill Stites, bassist for a day. (discobiscuits.net)

I don’t know if it’s the charm of the uniqueness wearing off, or just simply diminishing returns, but this show didn’t do as much for me as the past Triscuits shows. There were plenty of highlights though, some of them breathtaking, which are delineated below:

Highlights:

Mr. Don > Widow in the Rain

The first jam of the show is probably the best. It covers tremendous ground and multiple distinct themes before segueing into the debut of Widow in the Rain.

Story of the World

The second version is at least as strong as the first, beginning as a funky Barber-led jam and developing into an excellent trance jam with a soaring Barber peak.

Waves > Crystal Ball

It starts off as a fairly standard Waves jam but builds up to a sweet bliss peak before breaking down and segueing into Crystal Ball. 

Overture

An impressive performance of a challenging song from a one-off guest bassist.

Stray Observation:

This is the first inversion of Unspoken Rhyme, and only the second ever played. It is the first new inversion of 2000, and the only inversion debuted in the Triscuits era.

Before the Magellan encore, Barber mentions that it’s a certain song’s birthday and that they were going to play it. Magellan was first played 4/22/98, so that checks out, but it made me think back to a 1999 show where Brownie said that it was Magellan’s birthday but they weren’t going to play it. I assumed he was talking about the explorer (whose birthday is unknown), but I checked, and sure enough that show was 4/22/99. It never occurred to me that Brownie could be talking about the song.

—Andy

4/15/00 - Saturday, Recher Theater, Towson, MD

https://archive.org/details/db2000-04-15.flac16

The supposed one-timer “Bring Your Ass to the Party,” AKA 7-11, opens the show. The composition is still pretty rough (it’s essentially the same three verses repeated over and over) but the jamming section is dynamic and locomotive. Barber’s licks are lively in the first part of the jam, where Magner holds what is essentially the same pattern and Sammy keeps things moving. Like the Wetlands version, this jam is basically a 7-11 jam until it very suddenly isn’t. Around the seven minute mark things settle into a groove-oriented jam that builds steadily into an inverted Boop. The Boop funk jam is nice and drawn out, but it gets old fast and doesn’t peak nearly hard enough to make up for all of the feet-dragging. However, the jam out goes type two immediately. It is atmospheric and interesting, with Barber noodling crazy over waves of synth from Magner and tribal drum beats from Sammy. The jam goes from this tense chaos to what sounds like an I-Man jam before building to a Floes ending. The debut of Soul is Shaking follows. A jazzy tune that alternates between loungey and energetic sections, Soul is Shaking feels a bit like a cover or a song the band may have written in 97. For this reason it isn't surprising that it did not last long in the catalog despite its obvious merits. The Unspoken Rhyme, another debut, follows. The jam is a warm and pleasant jungle exploration; it’s a single theme done well, and it works great here. Some amusing banter after Unspoken Rhyme: Barber and Magner sing a welcome song to Sammy and Mauricio, and then play a false start to Helicopters with more amusing banter. I was sure Helicopters with Mauricio would be a trainwreck, but it’s actually pretty cool. It’s atmospheric and mellow (obviously, like all the Mauricio jams), but the band finds some cool musical spaces, moving through a tense passage before returning to bliss. The “peak” is nonexistent, but the fact that I was expecting that made it a lot less frustrating this time.

Barber, Sammy, and Mauricio Zuniga (source: discobiscuits.net)

The second set begins with a dyslexic completion of Floes. The long ambient intro is very evocative of a Crickets intro—perhaps foreshadowing its debut, or perhaps the song is on my mind for that reason and I’m imagining nonexistent connections. The Floes jammed into the Very Moon looked interesting on paper, but it’s just a standard Floes jam—with the Floes ending replaced with the similar sounding Star Wars tease—that essentially drop segues into a Very Moon intro. The Very Moon jam is pretty excellent—the section was becoming more fleshed out throughout 1999, and it still sounds great here. It’s not quite as fast as some of the better 99 versions, but it’s very thematic and has some great Barber licks. The funk jam kind of flounders for a few minutes until around the fourteen minute mark, when the band breaks down and restarts a new theme. The remainder of the track is an excellent mellow trance theme that breaks down as the track changes. I am not sure at what point Mauricio comes in. Sammy is definitely on the drums for the rest of The Very Moon track, but it definitely sounds like there’s some extra percussive effects towards the end.  By 1:45 in the Crickets track Mauricio is definitely present, although there are some drum effects in the following minutes that sound a little too authentic to be him. For maybe this reason, this might be my favorite Mauricio jamming I’ve heard, eminently atmospheric and ambient. It’s slow, but it’s supposed to be, so his style really works here. Around the seven minute mark the jam breaks down into Crickets proper. The first jam in Crickets is so alien from what the song eventually became that it’s slightly jarring. However the jam is undeniably fantastic. Dark and twisted, hauntingly atmospheric—this is what you want a Mauricio jam to sound like. Of course, the usual handicaps of a Mauricio jam are present here, and the first Crickets peak is almost an anti-peak, more a mellow conclusion to Barber’s theme. A typical Crickets peak is like a tension release, and there certainly isn’t any release of tension as the band segues into the funk section. Like the Crickets intro, the Crickets funk is perfect for Mauricio, as the jam doesn’t require a massive peak. I found myself listening in awe to this jam with my mouth hanging open, desperately wishing it were longer as I sensed the band winding down. Excellent stuff. Mauricio departs, and the band brings up Clay Belknap for Shimmy. There are small tape skips (I think) in the Shimmy composition, but the jam is well-executed. It doesn’t offer anything new, but it’s probably the closest thing to a “classic Biscuits” sound in a pretty experimental set. The first Crystal Ball is played as the encore. The composition is a little hesitant sounding, but it’s played pretty clean. The beginning and end of the song are largely intact as they would be in modern versions (with some variation on the lyrics), but the middle is entirely absent. The jam section of the song has seeds of what would become the middle later.

Barber and Clay Belknap (source: discobiscuits.net)

The second Triscuits show of the year is very experimental, and has moments of brilliance and moments of dullness, just like the first. Like the Wetlands show, there are another four original debuts; the band was working like mad to expand the catalog. 

Highlights:

7-11 > Boop:
It’s essentially a 7-11 jam until it becomes a Boop jam (with no type two in between), but the early 7-11 jams are just so cool. Great Barber and Magner interplay.

Boop > Floes:
In contrast to the jam into Boop, this one is type two right out of the gate. Spacey and weird cacophony builds to a great Floes ending by way of an I-Man theme.

Unspoken Rhyme:
Vies with Crickets for the strongest debut of the night. It’s pretty straightforward, but a great theme—maybe the happiest jam of the night.

Very Moon > Crickets:
The funk starts off kind of slow, but the band hits a great trance theme before breaking down into an equally great Crickets intro.

Crickets funk:
Hauntingly atmospheric. Mauricio’s finest work yet.

Stray Observations:
After Crickets, Barber asks the crowd “what do you want to call that one?” You can almost hear the grin on his face. This is clearly a reference to the fact that the fans called Svenghali “Splattums” for so long.
During the encore break Barber promotes the next two shows, but gets the dates mixed up. “I can’t read the cue card, my eyes are a little screwed up.” Magner says that a lot has been going on, and they just “wrote our first soundtrack to a movie.”

—Andy

1999: Every Show Ranked (part 2)

The Rationale

25. 7/3/99 - Moose Lodge - Claremont, NH

Original Score: 4/5

The only show played between 6/26 and 8/11 was the private wedding performance in Claremont NH. The first set is little more than competent, with strong standalone versions of some of the best ballad songs, but the second set is truly spectacular. The set consists entirely of a massive three song segment, Helicopters > Run Like Hell > Pygmy Twylyte > Helicopters, the first jam of which is a nearly thirty minute era-defining trance behemoth.

The Disco Biscuits perform at the Moose Lodge, 7/3/99 (source: discobiscuits.net)

24. 5/6/99 - Chameleon Club - Atlanta, GA

Original Score: 5/5

The brightest spot in the relatively bleak late (post 5/1) spring tour. The previous night, the band had played a show four hours away in Nashville, and they had driven to Athens in time to record a daytime radio spot. The band somehow managed to channel their exhaustion and delirium into a definitive (and impressively long) performance. The first set is all standalone save an unconventional and interesting MEMPHIS > News From Nowhere, but the Overture and Waves are both top-shelf versions. The second set, chiefly made up of the massive I-Man > Pygmy > I-Man > Vassilios > Helicopters segment, is a psychedelic masterpiece. Pygmy > I-Man spawned a piece of improv that was later reworked into King of the World, and I-Man > Vassilios is an exercise in tremendous patience. This set, and I-Man > Vassilios in particular, have always faced criticism for being bloated and overlong, but to me this is the Biscuits at their creative best.

23. 8/28/99 - Wormtown Music Festival, Stepping Stone Ranch - Escoheag, RI

Original Score: 4/5

The highest rated one set show on this list. Helicopters > Shem-Rah Boo > Helicopters likely catches the eye first, and it’s quite good. However, it is the standalone Mulberry’s and the Mr. Don > Shem-Rah Boo that are the indisputable highlights here. Mulberry’s goes deep into type two before returning to a blistering peak, and Mr. Don begins unconventionally dark before building on a bliss theme centered around the Confrontation riff (nearly a year before it was debuted) and returning back to the tense Shem-Rah ending.

22. 4/10/99 - Recher Theatre - Towson, MD

Original Score: 5/5

Before listening to the year in order I would have likely placed this above 4/9/99, but the second set isn’t quite strong enough to justify so bold a claim. That said, Frog Legs > Run Like Hell is better than anything from the Trocadero, and one of my favorite Biscuits jams ever played. The Aceetobee is spectacular as well, and the second set contains solid explorations in the Dribble and jam into Nughuffer. Don’t sleep on the Overture > Vassilios > Overture in the encore slot either.

Brownie and Sammy at the Recher, 4/10/99 (source: discobiscuits.net)

21. 2/19/99 - Legends Lounge - Las Vegas, NV

Original Score: 5/5

The legendary Las Vegas show contains what is possibly my favorite show opener of all time in Pygmy > Basis. It also contains one of the greatest Dribbles and a brilliant unconventional M.E.M.P.H.I.S. outro into a rare split Trooper. This was probably the most hyped show of winter tour, and it largely lives up to that hype.

20. 10/6/99 - Palookaville - Santa Cruz, CA

Original Score: 4/5

The Palookaville show is mostly known for the superb, nearly 40-minute Basis, which is strong enough to carry this show into the top 50 or so on its own. However, the show is remarkably strong all the way through. Mr. Don > Waves and Bernstein & Chasnoff in set one are both solid, but the second set is excellent top to bottom, with the first Svenghali outro segued into an Ape ending, probably the (aforementioned) greatest standalone Basis ever, and a filthy Nughuffer.

19. 4/9/99 - Trocadero - Philadelphia, PA

Original Score: 5/5

One of the most iconic shows in the Biscuits’ catalog, 4/9/99 has been called by many (including, at times, me) “overhyped,” or “overfluffed.” The show definitely has a mythic quality that goes beyond the music (it was, after all, the first Philadelphia show of the year, after a winter tour with no shows there), but the music is strong enough to put it in the top twenty on its own merits. The opening notes of Run Like Hell are perhaps as iconic as the show itself, and the Basis intro definitely qualifies as a must-hear jam. The entire second set is flawless, including a few retreads from 3/27: The Very Moon > Hot Air Balloon is comparably strong, but Waves > Basis is inarguably improved, and cited by some as the greatest Biscuits jam ever. For my tastes, M.E.M.P.H.I.S. > Waves might be even better.

18. 8/21/99 - Camp Bisco, TuneTown Campgrounds - Cherrytree, PA

Original Score: 4/5

This is where things will start to get controversial (if not already). I have not found anyone who has the same love of Shimmy > Waves (><) > Shimmy that I do, but that segment really is everything I could wish for. Besides the significance of the first inverted Waves, the Waves > Shimmy jam (besides being one of my favorite jams of the year) is so definitive and influential to the band’s sound for the rest of the year (and beyond). Plus, Lai > Basis is just so satisfying.

17. 3/27/99 - Graffiti Showcase - Pittsburgh, PA

Original Score: 5/5

Another show like 4/9 (but in my opinion more deserving) with an almost mythic status not wholly related to the music. 3/27/99 was the culmination of a tour during which the band improved more and reached higher heights than ever before, and was, at the time, the indisputable greatest show the band had ever played. This show is not just “good for winter 1999,” the music holds up in a major way. The way the whole show (almost) is sandwiched between Run Like Hell > Nughuffer … Nughuffer > Run Like Hell, the spectacular Aceetobee intro, the Very Moon > Hot Air Balloon, the gorgeous Magellan, the searing hot Dribble > Waves and Waves > Basis—the entire show is replete with highlights that are both groundbreaking for the time and delightful to listen to today.

16. 9/15/99 - Graffiti Showcase - Pittsburgh, PA

Original Score: 4/5

Another potential act of blasphemy, I actually think the second Graffiti’s show is a tad stronger than the first. Overture is a perfectly stronger than average version, and is the weakest point in the show. Dribble > Aceetobee is a full hour of 1999 glory, and the second set M.E.M.P.H.I.S. > Pat & Dex, Mr. Don > M.E.M.P.H.I.S. > Shem-Rah Boo is both creative setlisting and spectacular music.

15. 10/20/99 - Zydeco's - Birmingham, AL

Original Score: 4/5

Vassilios > Crater is a spectacular piece of fall 99 trancefusion, and the easy highlight of a solid first set. The second set, minus a standard Pat & Dex, is Mindless Dribble > Very Moon > Shem-Rah Boo. The entire segment is top-shelf, but the Dribble outro is the highlight.

14. 4/16/99 - Friar Tuck's - Norfolk, VA

Original Score: 5/5

This show is actually the most recently unearthed 1999 show, only made available in 2014 or so. It’s most famous for the first inverted Boop (first inversion of any song), but the highlights are numerous. For my tastes, the jam out of Magellan is the real highlight, a kind of playful lighthearted trance. Other highlights include an above average Shem-Rah Boo, an excellent and unconventional Down to the Bottom, and, of course, the hour long Helicopters > Boop (><) > Helicopters.

13. 9/13/99 - Crowbar - State College, PA

Original Score: 4/5

The highest ranked four star show! On paper it is the second set segment of I-Man > Basis > Boop > I-Man that looks like the winner, and it is extremely solid, but the surprise highlight of the show is the Vassilios > Helicopters, an unrelenting type two jam juggernaut with several fully developed themes. The whole show is solid, but Vassilios > Helicopters is a jam of the year contender.

12. 9/18/99 - Barrymore Theater - Madison, WI

Original Score: 5/5

The first best show of fall tour. The first set displays the kind of creative setlisting that was becoming more commonplace, with a Dribble > Magellan Reprise followed by a Frog Legs > Dribble—that is some of the best setlisting of the year, in my opinion. The jams are great too, but the highlight comes shortly afterward with the Dribble > Basis. The second set doesn’t look like much on paper, but the Spaga and Svenghali are both solid and the Mulberry’s > Basis is spectacular.

11. 4/29/99 - The Haunt - Ithaca, NY

Original Score: 5/5

Perhaps it was the excitement in anticipation of the upcoming Wetlands run, or perhaps something else, but for whatever reason, this show is miles ahead of anything from the previous week and a half. The first set isn’t in the league of the second, but Run Like Hell > Dribble is definitely worth checking out. The second set contains THE best standalone Overture, as well as a flawless Vassilios > Pygmy > Mr. Don > Run Like Hell, with each of the three jams completely different and completely perfect in their own unique way.

10. 10/15/99 - Sigma Nu - Oxford, MS

Original Score: 5/5

The iconic first set is arguably enough on its own to put this show in the top ten. The opening Little Betty Boop is some of the finest trance-fusion music ever created, and some of Barber’s finest work ever. The I-Man > Pygmy Twylyte that follows are some of the best versions of both songs. Clocking in at around 75 minutes, this is a beefy three song set to put it mildly. The second set (also three songs) is a little thinner, but the near-thirty minute House Dog is an all-timer and a fitting exclamation point to this excellent show.

9. 10/30/99 - Somerville Theater - Somerville, MA

Original Score: 5/5

Another show carried to the top by a single segment: M.E.M.P.H.I.S. > I-Man > Run Like Hell is easily in my top three favorite segments the band has ever done. From the rock god M.E.M.P.H.I.S. first jam, to the mellow and atmospheric outro, to the magnificent I-Man (perhaps even better than 10/15), to the fist-pumping high-energy trance fury of the Run Like Hell, this segment has it all. The first set is obviously not on this level, but all of the standalones are above average, even the Voices and HAB.

8. 4/30/99 - Wetlands Preserve - New York, NY

Original Score: 5/5

It starts off innocently enough with Voices and Jamillia, but everything that comes after is a proper Wetlands rager. All the adoration goes to the second set Morph > I-Man > Very Moon > Bernstein & Chasnoff, which is undeniably spectacular, but the real highlight of this show is the nearly 40 minute M.E.M.P.H.I.S., especially the nearly 30 minute outro. The outro covers tremendous ground and numerous themes, and is some of the purest type two “without a net” improvisation of the year.

7. 10/29/99 - Irvine Auditorium, University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, PA

Original Score: 5/5

Helicopters > Plan B could be the highlight of an ordinary show, but here it is probably the least interesting part. The rest of the set is fantastic, both in setlisting and playing: Mr. Don builds to one of the best Barber peaks ever, a fakeout of The Very Moon, which drops into a Pygmy that segues into Magellan ending, completing the version from the night before. Every jam is spectacular. The second set is blander on paper, but every standalone is arguably one of the best versions, and the Mulberry’s > Helicopters is on par with the jams in the first set.

6. 12/4/99 - Irving Plaza - New York, NY

Original Score: 5/5

Damn this show is fat. It’s the longest two set show of the year, and just about every jam is on another level (IMO, it kind of drops off around Magellan > Bazaar > Magellan, but picks up for the encore). Spaga > Very Moon is a magnificent jam and an unconventional segue pulled off masterfully. The Very Moon > Plan B is pure Bisco crack, and the Lai is one of the best standalone versions of the era. The House Dog to open the second set is easily the best ever, and the I-Man > Plums > I-Man > Spaga is excellent. The Jigsaw Earth encore is the first really great version of that song. All in all this is a front to back excellent show, and one of my favorites to just throw on when I can’t decide.

5. 10/22/99 - Georgia Theater - Athens, GA

Original Score: 5/5

This show has three monumental highlights that are both significant for the band’s future sound development and eminently enjoyable. The first is the massive Run Like Hell, unquestionably (in my mind) the definitive version. The second is the set two opening Svenghali, the best standalone version at the time and for over a year after, and one that defined, in many ways, the band’s future jungle tinged sound. The third, and my personal favorite, is Waves > Pygmy > Waves, which is still to me the apex of the dub-heavy rock and roll sound the band was experimenting with at the time.

4. 10/28/99 - Recher Theatre - Towson, MD

Original Score: 5/5

The first set has no right to sound as good as it does. On paper it looks like a gimmicky mess, but it’s so well-executed that it not only exceeds expectations, but also exceeds most other sets from the year. The jam from Spaga into the Basis fakeout (with Spaga teases) and the jam from Vassilios into Bazaar Escape (!) by way of an Aceetobee style jam are both spectacular. The second set features an amazing jam out of Magellan into the bridge of Spaga with Magner showing off his classical piano chops and a spectacular version of Mindless Dribble that is replete with teases and themes. The Dribble is unique and weird, but the outro is archetypal Bisco trance-fusion that builds into an explosive Basis ending.

10/28/99 (source: discobiscuits.net)

3. 5/1/99 - Wetlands Preserve - New York, NY

Original Score: 5/5

After a short but punchy Mulberry’s, the band launches into what is either my favorite or second favorite segment ever: Overture > Basis > Vassilios > Basis > Overture. The first palindrome. Every jam is excellent, but the Basis > Vassilios > Basis reaches moments that are so beyond excellent they could only be called transcendental. The Basis > Vassilios in particular is for me one of the most instantly recognizable pieces of music the band has ever created, so minimal and atmospheric, so deliberate. Vassilios > Basis is more of a steady bliss trance that builds to a get-on-your-horse-and-burn-down-the-village ending. The second set has no big segments, and it’s certainly a comedown from the first set, but the Dribble is my favorite version from the tour and the Shimmy is maybe my favorite version ever. The Magellan > Plan B > Magellan is a great idea well-executed, and the Waves is pretty great too, even if it gets lost in the rest of the glory.

2. 12/30/99 - Theater Of The Living Arts - Philadelphia, PA

Original Score: 5/5

These last two might be controversial. This is my vote for the most consistently excellent show of the year. The first set, like the first set of 5/1/99, begins with one of the best ever versions of a standalone song that is followed by one of my favorite segments of music ever. Here it is the Vassilios jam that has won my heart, shifting through phases and moods, smoothly going from melancholy to triumph to blissful contentment. The rest of the segment is similarly excellent. The second set is nearly as good as the first, with a brain-melting trance jam in Shem-Rah, a massive type two jam in Down to the Bottom, and a short but surprisingly deep type two jam in Pygmy. The Mindless Dribble is one of the finest of a year with nothing but fine Mindless Dribbles. Even the encore delivers some unconventional jamming and unique setlisting. It seems like the obvious choice for best show of the year. And yet…

1. 12/31/99 - Theater Of The Living Arts - Philadelphia, PA

Original Score: 5/5

Could it really be anything else? With my method of ranking shows based not on the consistency but on the quantity of good, great and incredible music, the answer is “probably not.” However, I maintain that if the entire show was just the third set, made up entirely of the Akira jam, this show would still be in the running for best of the year. If you were to break the Akira jam into 5-10 minute chunks or themes, as much as 75% of the top 25 jams of the year would be found in this show. The Akira jam is just so perfect, so definitively “Bisco,” that it is difficult for me to even think of ranking the shows any other way. You add in the rest of the next-level music in the show—the Svenghali > Boop (><) > Svenghali in set one and the Helicopters in set two—and the answer becomes even clearer: 12/31/99 is unquestionably the band’s greatest achievement of 1999, and perhaps ever.

The Ranking

1. 12/31/99

2. 12/30/99

3. 5/1/99

4. 10/28/99

5. 10/22/99

6. 12/4/99

7. 10/29/99

8. 4/30/99

9. 10/30/99

10. 10/15/99

11. 4/29/99

12. 9/18/99

13. 9/13/99

14. 4/16/99

15. 10/20/99

16. 9/15/99

17. 3/27/99

18. 8/21/99

19. 4/9/99

20. 10/6/99

21. 2/19/99

22. 4/10/99

23. 8/28/99

24. 5/6/99

25. 7/3/99

26. 10/9/99

27. 10/2/99

28. 9/28/99

29. 5/29/99

30. 3/20/99

31. 6/13/99

32. 3/13/99

33. 4/17/99

34. 5/31/99

35. 6/11/99

36. 8/20/99

37. 9/14/99

38. 8/11/99

39. 10/7/99

40. 10/1/99

41. 9/16/99

42. 4/27/99

43. 10/21/99

44. 2/18/99

45. 3/14/99

46. 9/11/99

47. 2/10/99

48. 3/21/99

49. 9/23/99

50. 4/23/99

51. 2/25/99

52. 4/8/99

53. 4/24/99 late

54. 4/7/99

55. 9/17/99

56. 5/28/99

57. 1/29/99

58. 2/3/99

59. 5/27/99

60. 6/26/99

61. 2/16/99

62. 3/18/99

63. 2/12/99

64. 3/22/99

65. 5/14/99

66. 3/26/99

67. 3/5/99

68. 4/24/99 early

69. 10/27/99

70. 10/14/99

71. 9/24/99

72. 8/13/99

73. 1/28/99

74. 3/8/99

75. 1/27/99

76. 1/23/99

77. 9/20/99

78. 9/10/99

79. 1/19/99

80. 5/7/99

81. 5/8/99

82. 5/11/99

83. 10/23/99

84. 5/4/99

85. 3/25/99

86. 5/13/99

87. 10/10/99

88. 6/5/99

89. 5/5/99

90. 9/29/99

91. 5/15/99

92. 10/19/99

93. 4/21/99

94. 6/3/99

95. 10/31/99

96. 10/25/99

97. 6/10/99

98. 3/6/99

99. 1/22/99

100. 9/8/99

101. 5/30/99

102. 2/27/99

103. 9/21/99

104. 2/20/99

105. 4/25/99

106. 4/28/99

107. 9/30/99

108. 3/17/99

109. 1/18/99

110. 2/13/99

111. 1/26/99

112. 6/19/99

113. 2/5/99

114. 10/8/99

115. 2/4/99

116. 6/12/99

117. 9/9/99

118. 2/8/99

119. 2/6/99

120. 2/2/99

121. 2/24/99

122. 3/19/99

123. 1/24/99

124. 4/22/99

125. 1/21/99

126. 3/4/99

127. 3/12/99

128. 2/9/99

129. 1/30/99

130. 3/10/99