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.