Here goes number three. This brings us another couple years into the future, for a one-setter at the Biscuits first appearance at Jam on the River in Philly. One of the main reasons for putting up this one, on top of this being an amazing festival set, is that it very well could be the best recording of this band by a taper EVER! I was also in attendance for this beautiful night. Don\'t worry, I will not only put things i have seen down(I have just seen a BUNCH of great shows by these guys).
5/26/2003 Jam On The RiverI: Jigsaw Earth, Morph Dusseldorf, World is Spinning, Digital Buddha > Sound 1 > Digital Buddha, Kitchen Mitts > Basis for a Day*, 42
E. Story of the World
*ending only.
This show gets right out of the gates with a fairly standard opener in Jigsaw Earth. It has a really nice opening and once they get into the 1st jam you can really tell that they are on. Very tight and pushing the pace on a song that had been growing a little stale in the months prior. It is a sort of half composed/half improv section that really gets the crowd going.
Next is the highlight of the show, and definitely one of the highlights of the year actually. Morph Dusseldorph is unleashed and played better than I have EVER heard it. Even on PT Bisco, there is a consensus that this is one of, if not THE, best versions of this song. The jam they get into is so unreal it almost seems composed. At this point the energy was already out of control and it would never subside.
World is Spinning is still a short song at this point(lately they have begun jamming it out a little), but it is a good rocker and serves a small slice of normalcy after the onslaught of the first two songs.
The second highlight of the night is the Buddha->Sound 1->Buddha sandwich that comes next. The segue into Sound 1 is FLAWLESS and at the time really caught me off guard. The rallying climax into the end of Buddha is HUGE and shows the true POWER of this band when they are firing on all cylinders(which in this year of 2003 wasn\'t all the time, one starts to wonder if Jon wasn\'t telling the truth that they actually practiced for this show;))
Next up is (at the time) a relatively new song that had just begun getting jammed out, Kitchen Mitts. This is a solid version that builds to an all out FRENZY at the end, with Jon and Marc literally jumping up and down while playing(not ala Phish where it was planned). Definitely was the highpoint energy wise in the set from the crowd as a few began to pick up on where the jam was headed. As the jam unfolded it became more and more obvious that all hell was about to break loose as the epicenter of all things BISCO was about to drop. BASIS FOR A DAY!!! Think YEM, Dark Star, Scheme, etc. and you get the point. There are a few fans of the Biscuits that could probably write a thesis on versions of Basis alone. Today it was to only be the ending climax of the beast, but OH, what ta climax it is. I will admit Basis gets a little sloppy before the pause, Barber goes a little overboard and has to shave down the breakdown he usually does, but hell...he was on FIYA!
\'42\' is a solid version, but is somewhat over shadowed by what had come before it, still has an outlandishly dark feel to it, that fit in perfectly with the night sky that had by now fallen.
the final highlight of the day/night was the encore. Story of the World is definitely a fan favorite and this was one of the first of a few tranced out versions this year. Also check out the one from the night before T-Giving with Jaime Shields of the New Deal, hot
****. This version gave the crowd one last time to rage before heading home.
What a night, what a show.
Enjoy!