5/20/00 - Saturday, Buffalo Gap Camping Ground, Capon Bridge, WV

https://archive.org/details/db2000-05-20.flac16

The Very Moon intro is drawn out and features some narration from Barber. The first jam is about three minutes, short but well-played. The second jam sees Barber get on bass again. I have to say I enjoy hearing him play bass, and it’s one of the stronger Barber-on-bass jams I’ve heard, but it would be so much better if he were on the guitar. Magner gets into some ambient trancey space right away, latching onto a brooding melancholy theme, and I can’t help but imagine that this would have been a next-level jam if Barber were able to contribute to the melody and push it forward. The brooding trance theme breaks down around the 21 minute mark and Sammy lays down a more relaxed rock beat and Barber returns to guitar as the jam heads toward 7-11. The basic structure of 7-11 remains the same, although the lyrics seem to change each time. The jam begins as a frenetic full-band rager that breaks down after a few minutes. The band spends some time in this liminal space before Rob Derhak joins on bass, at which point Sammy establishes a four on the floor beat. The remainder of the jam is an excellent build into Run Like Hell. It doesn’t get up to the massive peaks reached by the great 1999 Run Like Hells, but it is an excellent jam regardless. Derhak does Brownie’s vocal parts in the verses, which was a little jarring. There is a short jam between the verses of a couple minutes that provides a nice peak going into the second verse. The main jam is only about seven minutes, but it’s excellent all the way through. Magner uses a variety of harsher synths in the beginning, and Barber brings the jam up to a properly energetic conclusion. After Run Like Hell, Derhak leaves the stage and Mauricio joins the band for the second ever rendition of Munchkin Invasion. The jam is a melancholy trance jam that finds its way to triumphant bliss as it reaches the “peak.” It’s a pretty standard version; the jam is maybe a little less weird than the debut, but the ending is considerably smoother. Story is a typically strong version, and follows a similar pattern as the Munchkin: melancholy, atmospheric jam that shifts gradually to a triumphant ending. After Munchkin, Jordan Crisman takes the stage for the first and only time that night. He performs a competent albeit truncated version of House Dog. The first jam is well-played, but shorter than usual, and the second isn’t played at all. Mauricio joins the band for the set closer Crickets. I wish Crisman had stayed, because I very much enjoyed that configuration in the previous night’s Helicopters, but oh well. The Crickets is a solid version, with two very atmospheric and “soundy” jams.

The Professor, Sam Altman, on the bass (discobiscuits.net)

Overall, a very consistent show. No real missteps, but on the other hand nothing that really blew me away either. The highlights, such that they are, are below:

Highlights:

The Very Moon > 7-11
The mellow, atmospheric jam that develops out of the Moon funk is one of the better uses of the “Barber on bass” format so far—but it would likely be a lot better with the full band.

7-11 > Run Like Hell
Another strong early 7-11. Furious raging trance-fusion yields to the more relaxed build of a Run Like Hell intro, complemented excellently by Derhak’s bass.

Munchkin Invasion
I don’t necessarily think the jam is any better than the debut, but the composition is considerably better executed.

Story of the World
Like the 7-11, an excellent iteration of a new song. As with most in this era, Story stays in more somber territory than usual before building up to the glorious peak.

Stray Observations:
Some narration from Barber during the Very Moon intro, in which he states that he always imagined playing the melody as people walked up to the stage over a green rolling hill (but since they were already there, he wouldn’t make them go back).
After Munchkin, Barber says they can't do Helicopters because they did it the night before "as a five-piece, it was very interesting." I concur.
Prior to Story, Magner mentions that the band would play 6/27 at the Roxy in New York. Barber says it’s the biggest gig of their career. He says the Roxy has “one of those spring-boarded dance floors, sort of like the Crystal Ballroom.” He says that they might play Bazaar Escape at the Roxy (they did, in fact) in honor of the Bazaar Escape from the Crystal Ballroom, which he cites as his favorite. This is a reference to the Little Betty Boop > Bazaar Escape from 9/30/99. Barber also plugs Camp Bisco on August 25 and 26.
Barber says that Crickets is “perfect for this time of night.”

—Andy

5/19/00 - Friday, Zollman's Pavilion, Lexington, VA

https://archive.org/details/db2000-05-19.flac16/

The Mulberry’s opener gets weird very soon into the first jam. At about 3:30 Magner departs from the standard organ sound to more electronic synths. A couple minutes later Barber becomes a more dominant presence in the jam, and the two build on a full-band experimental trance theme. Magner returns to the organs shortly after the nine minute mark, and the jam appears to be heading to familiar territory (9:45 could convincingly be called a fakeout), before breaking down and heading into ambient, experimental territory. Sammy moves the jam from this unstructured space through a trance passage and finally into jungle as the band lands in a Spaga ending. The Waves jam begins extremely mellow; it’s definitely still trance, as opposed to the dub style of many late 99 Waves jams, but it’s considerably more relaxed than usual. The jam moves casually through its theme, building steadily to a crescendo around the 9-10 minute mark, but even this crescendo is nowhere near the intensity of a Waves peak. After this the theme breaks down. Sammy shifts from trance to what is basically a hip-hop style beat, and the jam stays in this mellow territory for a few minutes. Around the 12 minute mark, Sammy begins to play some syncopated fills, and shortly afterwards begins to increase the tempo noticeably. Magner gradually makes the shift from the trance synths to the organ, and he soon signals the return to Mulberry’s Dream. The second jam in Mulberry’s starts off standard but breaks down very quickly to the point where Sammy is the only real presence. Despite its length, this jam is basically just a longer version of a standard Mulberry’s jam, but there are some moments of greatness, especially from Barber towards the end. I don’t know if it’s because I’m burned out on the concept or if it was a weaker version, but the Svenghali with Mauricio did nothing for me. After Svenghali, the band brings up the guest bassist who would come the closest to replacing Brownstein: Jordan Crisman, who joins the band here for a powerful, if straightforward, rendition of Boop. The first jam is a perfunctory rager, but the second gets out there a little bit, with a cool trancey jam developing out of the funk section. An auspicious, if not particularly momentous, first performance from Crisman.

The man who almost replaced Marc Brownstein: Jordan Crisman (discobiscuits.net)

Rhyme gets off to a shaky start, but after the intro the composition is solid. The jam is uplifting jungle that is very in the vein of a Svenghali, and almost makes up for the disappointing lack of drumming on the Svenghali. The Barber-led theme breaks down around the nine minute mark and Magner leads the band into the ending. Jordan comes back on stage to help the band tackle Magner’s jazz classic Smoothie King. Although it’s noted as split, my first thought hearing it was that it was played in full and outro’d. The jam out of Smoothie King is very mellow without much structure, especially from Sammy who does not hold the others to a regular beat. It sounds a lot like a Hope intro in the beginning stages, but by 7:30 or so it begins to develop some structure from Sammy, taking on a darker tone. It loses focus but regains it quickly, and around 8:30-9:30 it sounds like a demented march towards I-Man. However, the jam breaks down and kind of limps into I-Man (Jordan is still not fully comfortable playing with the other three, I suppose). The middle jam in I-Man is short and tense, leaving plenty of time for the main jam. The main jam is completely standard with the small exception that the ending isn’t played; instead, the band breaks down and builds up a short jazzy jam back into the “ending” of Smoothie King. Some excellent setlist construction, even though nothing in the segment really grabbed me. The Spaga jam features Barber on bass, which is one of my least favorite Triscuits configurations. It works okay here, about as well as we could hope, as the dark jungle style of a Spaga jam doesn’t sound nearly as sparse without guitar as, say, a Very Moon funk or Jigsaw dub jam. The jam never really does anything for me, and breaks down into a Floes intro. The Floes jam is very cool and uplifting, and features a jam on the Hope middle progression prior to the ending. Crisman returns (again) for Jigsaw Earth. The first jam in Jigsaw is short, as per usual, but gets unusually dark and brooding, especially immediately before the chase riff. The jam in between chase riffs is even shorter! As was usually the case in this era, the main jam is the final dub jam. It has some cool moments but doesn’t really get anywhere for my tastes. Jigsaw Earth had a long way to go before it would be the jam juggernaut that it was in the fall. Helicopters follows and, even though it is not annotated as such on Archive, features Crisman on bass and Mauricio on the 505. This is a rare jam, in that it features Mauricio on percussion while Sammy is also on the drums, which really gives us the best of both worlds: the energy of a typical Biscuits jam, with the experimental/atmospheric quality of a typical Mauricio jam. It’s easily the best jam of the set, with Magner in particular adapting to the unique atmosphere of the double percussionists. He utilizes the rabbit hole synths in the early part of the jam, and the cascading waves in the later part as it begins to break down around the nine minute mark. Here Mauricio presumably leaves the stage, and the rest of the band build up to an excellent Waves peak.

Magner and Crisman (discobiscuits.net)

After the very solid 5/13, I was a little disappointed with this show. Only two more shows (both one setters) before we get to 6/27 and Jordan Crisman as the full-time bassist. Can’t say I’m gonna miss this haphazard format of guest bassists and Mauricio jams, but in the meantime, here are the highlights:

Highlights:

Mulberry’s Dream > Spaga

The second Mulberry’s Dream of the year. Like 4/22/00, it’s split-up and segued out of the first jam. Like 4/22/00, it’s jammed into Spaga. Like 4/22/00, it’s a monster. The jam moves through multiple distinct phases of trance before settling into jungle in the transition into Spaga.

Above the Waves > Mulberry’s Dream

A distinctly mellow Waves trance theme makes up the first half, and some spectacular work from Sammy characterizes the second half. After a crescendo and breakdown, Sammy lays the groundwork for some fun hip-hop jamming that breaks down into some jungle fills before returning to Mulberry’s.

Unspoken Rhyme

It’s not anything too out of the ordinary, but it’s a fun, uplifting jungle jam with Sammy on the kit—exactly what I’ve been missing, and craving, in the Mauricio Svenghalis.

Helicopters > Above the Waves

After a pretty ho-hum second set, the Helicopters > Above the Waves segment gives a much needed jolt of energy. Featuring the core three plus Mauricio on 505 and Crisman on bass, this jam is both thematic and energetic. Magner dominates the first theme, and then Barber builds the jam to an excellent peak.

Stray Observations:

After the Mulberry’s ending, Barber refers to the songs played earlier in the set, including Spaga. He refers to Magner as the bass player, and it seems to throw him off. It made me very sad.

Prior to Svenghali, Barber tells the crowd that the Mauricio jams are mellow and relaxing.

According to Barber, Smoothie King was a fan request. 

This is the first and only Smoothie King to be either split up or jammed out of.

There are distinct Hope teases in the Floes jam, in addition to the vaguely Hope-esque I-man intro jam. Hope would not be debuted for another three months.

I believe this is the first Jigsaw with the chase riff played twice in a row, a feature that would eventually become commonplace in the song.

—Andy

5/13/00 - Saturday, Sandwich High Auditorium, Sandwich, MA

https://archive.org/details/db2000-05-13.m4.eac.flac16

I-Man features a drawn-out, mellow intro jam of about four minutes. There is some minimal jamming between the verses, but nothing significant. The middle jam is pretty sharply focused, in stark contrast to the I-Man from 4/22. Magner locks into a theme immediately, and Barber’s playing, never shreddy or peaky in this jam, is nevertheless exploratory in a complementary way. Barber hits an excellent riff immediately preceding a well-executed drop into the middle section. The second jam is even stronger. Some excellent interplay with Magner and Barber early on. Magner makes tasteful use of the choir of angels patch as Barber begins to push the jam forward to a raging peak. Easily the best I-Man of the year so far. The Boop first jam starts off extremely mellow, especially by the standards of that section. For this reason, Magner’s bass synth is very prominent here. The first theme is perfectly standard otherwise, but it breaks down around the six minute mark and the jam immediately heads toward more sinister waters. The theme that unfolds in the ensuing minutes is breathtaking, unflinchingly sinister and at times orchestral. Magner and Barber lock up so cohesively it is hard to tell who is doing what at times. They build the jam up to a frenzied conclusion and then it begins to break down around the nine minute mark. Magner is king in the next section, both on the bass and assorted other synths. He very gradually moves the jam back into familiar waters as the band approaches the middle of Boop. An amazing and unconventional first jam in Boop, and possibly the best iteration of that section I’ve heard (definitely the best at that point in the band’s history). The second jam starts off very bluesy, and moves leisurely out of Boop territory into a kind of spacey ambient jam, almost like a Crickets intro. It sounds like an extremely mellow Story ending before Barber smoothly drops the Crystal Ball intro lick. The rest of the set is very standard. Crystal Ball is played in full (no developments in the composition) and is outro’d. The outro jam is in Waves territory pretty much immediately, and while there are some pleasant moments in this type one intro, there’s nothing that’s anything more than pretty. It also goes on for a bit too long, meaning that five minutes of the nineteen minute Waves track are taken up by this intro jam. The main jam suffers for this. It’s on the shorter side, and while it’s energetic and well-played, it doesn’t offer anything new. 

There aren't any pictures on file for this show, so have some pretty lasers. Photo Credit: Dave Vann

Spaga opens set two, and while the jam is short, it’s pretty fantastic. Magner and Barber are absolutely symphonic at times, and Magner is especially effective at holding up the low end while crafting this atmosphere. The jam ends really suddenly as Sammy triggers the ending somewhat out of nowhere, which is a real shame as there was definitely still room to explore in this jam. The band recovers from this misstep without much trouble, and the rest of Spaga is well-played, although perfunctory. The first jam in The Very Moon is nice and drawn out, although still firmly type one. The funk jam features Barber on the bass, and gradually moves away from funk confines. By the sixteen minute mark the jam has evolved into mid-tempo trance. Here Magner is fully in charge of the melody section, and he makes use of a wide variety of synth choices. Overall the jam is very cool, but there is a chaotic breakdown between the 19-20 minute mark that is extremely abrasive and not particularly enjoyable. After this section the jam breaks down and shortly afterward Sammy lays down a jungle beat. The ensuing jam is very experimental; it doesn’t always hold my interest but it’s still one of the coolest parts of the show. Part of what keeps this jam from being next-level is the absence of the guitar. It’s a very cool drum n bass style jam, but it doesn’t necessarily feel like the Biscuits to me. Around the 29 minute mark this theme breaks down completely, presumably so Barber can get back on the guitar. The remainder of the jam is a short type one intro into Story. Story is the shortest version yet played; it isn’t on the level of the other versions, but it’s punchy and energetic and provides a solid exclamation point to the end of the show.

Overall, a pretty solid, albeit short show, the first and only of the year with just the core three Triscuits. In lieu of a rating, the highlights are laid out below:

Highlights:

I-Man
The first solid I-Man of the year. Both jams are solid, but the second is especially worthwhile.

Little Betty Boop
The Triscuits shows aren’t the most even or consistent, but pretty much all of them have at least one moment that made my jaw drop. Often these moments happen in the least expected of places. The Boop first jam was that moment for me from this show. It departs from the confines of a standard Boop trance and moves through a passage of almost cinematic darkness before returning to type one.

Spaga
Some of Magner’s best work of the show. The jam is fantastic but woefully short.

The Very Moon >
The Very Moon funk jam is very uneven, but there are some real diamonds in the rough here. The first part of the jam, from 16-19 or so, is a pretty enjoyable trance progression. The second, from 23-29, is a very unconventional drum n bass jam that showcases Barber’s talent on the bass guitar.

Stray Observations:
At the beginning of the show, Barber mentions that he has a great prom story, but that he won’t tell it just yet. He doesn’t tell it for the whole show, unless he does so off tape.
This is the only Triscuits show of the year to feature only the core three. It is the first show of the year not to feature Mauricio.

—Andy