This week's #TDIH is a 31-minute segment pulled from our 11/18/2004 concert in Ithaca, NY and is definitely an interesting listen.
Ithaca was one of the first places that tND started playing regularly - the fans took to us early on and it quickly became a preferred stop on our tour routing between 2000 and 2006. In fact, it's an Ithaca audience that can be heard singing me "Happy Birthday" (but we reversed the audio) in the background of "Ray Parker, Jr Pt 1" on our 2000 self-titled release.
This cut starts out dark and stays dark for a while. A lot of our show-starting jams often begin in minor keys but the sound, vibe and energy of this opening is somewhat spooky, IMO. Might have something to do with the Moog sounding like a perimeter alarm going off.
The section at 1:50 does nothing to dispel the darkness, courtesy of the bass explosions/sparse repetition of the synth coupled with Darren's intense jackhammer groove.
An abupt gear change at 4:30, always one of my favourite things to do. In this case, we slow it down and Dan's awesome fuzz bass finds its way in.
Pretty good example of 2004-era New Deal - the moody, somewhat heavy repetition that is moving away from House Music and into more intense grooves and sounds. There was never a conscious decision to keep things sparse and grey - we just sort of fell into those types of nights.
"Jagoff" gets cued around 9:30 and its jam from 12:55 to 17:30 maintains a similar vibe with some spooky keys work by Yours Truly. The heavier sounds are definitely finding their way into my solo...
Dan can be heard playing the bassline to "Demolition Man" by the Police while i join in with the melody around 15:05 until 16:55.
The "Deep Sun" cue is played at 17:21 but we keep the jam going (transitioning into a pretty ambient section) until the main bit finally kicks in at 21:35 -Jamie
