2001-01-20

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Ken Burns’ Jazz was on the air, and George Bush was just about to enter the White House. Or maybe he just had.

This was the second and last Magpu show at the Hidden Noise Collective, which was little more than a warehouse on the south side of Elm street, a few buildings to the west of the Gypsy Tea Room. To get in, you had to walk down a graffitti-covered alley and enter from the back. There was no curfew, so the music tended to go past 4:00 a.m.

On this evening, Olospo played the first set, then Magpu, followed by the Greyhounds. The crowd was quite large, especially for a venue that didn’t officially exist. Late in the evening, a fight broke out between a couple of the attendees, but calm was restored fairly quickly.

Flying Frog Stan Smith ran sound using his rather nice PA setup. Some interesting vocal treatments can be heard at various points during the night.

I think Kurt was using Brit’s Hammond organ; it sounds nice.

True Faith wraps up with some gas hose effects.

Banter after True Faith involved discussion of the fact that we come from the planet Neptune.

MalletKAT becomes much more audible during Sweat. There was some sort of problem conneting to the board, as I recall. Maybe the phantom power wasn’t on, resulting in no signal from my DI box.

Kurt teases “Rollercoaster of Love” just before Revenge of the Rather Large Burrito. During Revenge, we jam on the theme from King Crimson’s 21st Century Schizoid Man. Kurt dedicates the song to Moop, who got out a month before, stole the car, and picked up some feline companions.

Before First Tube, Cliff announces that Magpu will be covered in the last two seconds of Ken Burns’ Jazz, just after the four seconds on Mahavishnu Orchestra. Tonight, we’ll only be playing songs by Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

Cliff was decked out in his Project Pu lab coat.

This set features a rare performance of the actual Taco John theme, that we learned off the internet, sung by Kurt and Cliff.

This show was on Brian’s birthday; Kurt extends Rasta birthday greetings to Brian during the Taco John jam.

This set features the premiere performance of Lost Black Cat. This is the “rap” version, before Terry had really worked out a melody for the lyrics. Zim gets involved during the jam, telling further tales of Moop’s travels. More gas hose effects accompany him.

So Many Hats end break sample: Frank Zappa announcing, “Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.” Take that, Ken Burns.

In the last verse of Hats, Kurt yells something about “your winter tuque”. It was cold in that warehouse. Cliff was probably wearing his bright yellow “CAT Diesel Power” knit cap. Other people were probably wearing tuques as well. Take off, eh.

Somewhere near the end of our set, people began lighting off fireworks in the “pit” behind the band area. The sparks, smoke, and flickering lights made for an exciting performance, as we wondered just what exactly was going on behind us, and hoped it wouldn’t get out of control…

Brian tosses out a quick Amycalling tease at the end, probably as a greeting to Amy, who I think I recall was in attendance that night.

Note to self: Incorrect segue in setlist—stop between Revenge and First Tube.