November 11, 2000

Irving Plaza · New York, NY

15 songs5 segues3 sets

Set 1Basis for a Day★*, Three Wishes, The Unspoken Rhyme★*, Home Again, Hope

Set 2Hot Air Balloon* > Floes, Crickets > Hot Air Balloon, M.E.M.P.H.I.S.* > Crickets > Mr. Don★* > Crickets

Footnotes

Basis for a Day - The jam begins with Magner using a very clean synth sound while Barber uses some harsher distortion. When Magner takes the reins, he delivers a jarring Gates of Hell line and soon moves over to the trance synths. As the theme develops, Magner uses the Gates of Hell at a lower register than typical over heavily distorted synths and a psychotic theme from Barber, all contributing to a sinister effect. After the key change, the jam builds patiently to an excellent Basis ending.

The Unspoken Rhyme - The jam begins with some mellow ambient waves from Magner and muted distortion from Barber in a melancholy theme. Pretty soon Magner introduces the flute patch to great effect. This theme breaks down, and Magner introduces a trance lead that he builds over several minutes. The back half of this jam is incredible, with Magner and Barber trading lead around this theme and building to a great ending.

Hot Air Balloon - After a couple minutes of type one soloing, the jam breaks down into a mellow trance theme. This theme breaks down after only a few minutes into mellow psychedelia. Barber develops a catchy riff, and the rest of the band falls into place around this riff. It’s not typical Biscuits fare, but it is stunningly beautiful. The jam enters Floes territory pretty soon after, with a near complete breakdown and a patient build back up to Floes.

M.E.M.P.H.I.S. - The outro jam is extremely patient. Barber uses muted distortion to craft a playful, bouncy theme. Sammy begins to gradually shift towards a trance rhythm, and the jam builds, with extreme patience, to a Crickets peak over the next 8 minutes.

Mr. Don - The jam begins with a standard theme but gradually breaks down into ambient minimalism over the first few minutes. The jam builds back up into a gorgeous Don theme. It hits a spectacular uncomposed peak before breaking down into a kind of mashup with the ending of Don and Crickets. Barber plays the Don ending riff while Sammy and Brownstein play the rhythm to the Crickets funk, and after a few measures the whole band commits to the Crickets ending.

Setlist data from the Biscuits Internet Project (discobiscuits.net).