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.
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| 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.
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| 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
Great write up. Enjoyed reading your analysis and thinking about the music from this perspective.
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