When asked to name a legendary venue, most Biscuits fans will gravitate towards the sites of older classic shows, venues where the band cut their teeth as young musicians. The Wetlands Preserve springs immediately to mind, or the Trocadero, or the Electric Factory (where the band once graced a mural on the men’s room wall). Even a one-off venue like Silk City Diner, with only one (momentously significant) show would likely be widely recognized as hallowed ground.
For this reason, it might be strange to consider the Philadelphia Fillmore, a venue the band played for the first time in 2016, a legendary venue. Certainly it is not on the same level as the Wetlands, but all the same something must be set for the remarkable quality and consistency of the fourteen shows played there as of March 11 2020. Ever since the band made the new venue their Philadelphia outpost in February 2016, the band has reliably delivered high-quality performances. Some of our favorite standouts are highlighted below.
The Tunnel is one of the most poignant songs in the Biscuits catalog. It is always a treat to hear live, but rarely does a version hold up as strongly as this one, which is easily the best version played with Allen. The jam proceeds along a standard, yet elevated, Tunnel groove. At the thirty minute mark of that video, Barber locks into a very simple, elegant groove, and Magner complements him with the choir of angels patches (fitting given the nature of the song). At 31:35, Brownie leads the jam into new waters with a purposeful bass line that Magner quickly adapts to. Barber locks in within a minute, and the whole band builds on this triumphant theme for the rest of the jam. The patient theme building in the following ten plus minutes is inspired playing for any era. When Brownie finally comes in with the Abyss ending bass line around 42:20 it is both sudden and smooth.
How the band takes the dazzling triumphant joy of Bowie’s Let’s Dance into utter freaking madness before returning to the poppy bliss of Brownie’s Humuhumunukunukuapua’a is nothing short of spellbinding. Magner’s descending synth line quickly leads the jam into the more eerie waters, and Barber picks up what he’s laying down immediately. As the jam gets darker, Magner reprises similar synth lines to the ones he played in the beginning of the jam, while adding in transcendental effects (see 2:58:00) to elevate the atmosphere. At 2:58:35, Barber takes the reins and pushes the jam forward, and the rest of the band follows suit. The tempo quickens, and Magner’s synth effects become more digital; the combined effect is a frenetic jam passage that perfectly encapsulates the notion of “controlled chaos.” Some excellent theme building from Magner and Barber in the ensuing minutes that culminates in a fantastic crescendo at 3:01:50. The jam winds down in a way that doesn’t quite resolve all of the tension it had built up, and when Brownie begins playing the Humu bass line more distinctly (around 3:05:50) it feels almost as if you’re coming up for air after a deep dive below the ocean’s surface. This jam is my pick for the best of the setbreak era.
This will likely be the most controversial entry on the list, as this set was, and I assume still is, very polarizing. To my ears, there isn’t a finer Reactor in the setbreak era (and the only other contender, interestingly, was also played at the Fillmore). The jam proceeds as a standard Reactor theme. It builds up to a fakeout that is almost Reactor but not quite—where Reactor is triumphant, this false peak is sinister—which creates an almost uncanny valley effect. Barber goes absolutely nuts on the disaster siren pedal (which I know many hate, but its usage feels appropriate in this section). After the soul-crushing brutality of this theme (and some admitted sloppiness in the transition) the band latches onto a theme that feels almost deceptively pleasant around 2:35:50. There are hints of Very Moon but, of course, the band is saving it for later. They relax in this pleasant space with only minor variation until around 2:42:13 when Barber signals another shift. Credit to Magner for making a piano sound so sinister. A very patient build into Orch Theme develops from here.
—Andy
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