6/27/00 - Tuesday, The Roxy, New York, NY

https://archive.org/details/db2000-06-27.flac16

Finally, some stability. This is the first show of the year not to feature lineup changes, fake bass instrumentation, guest appearances, or that infernal 505. The show actually consists of fleshed out segments for the first time all year, and the quality of the jams definitely benefits from this. This is also the first show of the year to which I will bother to apply a rating.

Barber, Jordan and Sammy, all looking like US Army Grunts (discobiscuits.net)

Mr. Don is the perfect opener for a very jammy show. The jam creeps along at a steady pace with a blissful Magner-dominated atmosphere and some simple catchy licks from Barber. The jam steadily builds to a crescendo, and seems to be heading towards a standard Don ending, but around 12:45 it breaks down completely. The jam pretty quickly resolves into a type one Bazaar intro, but it has its moments even if it isn’t exploratory. Around 16:00 Barber hits on a great catchy groove that he builds to a pretty solid type one “peak” into Bazaar. Very solid jam and transition, although the breakdown in the middle of the jam was pretty sudden. Bazaar Escape itself is played standard, but just as it has a massive intro jam, it also has an equally massive outro jam, based on the Waves riff in the ending. Barber takes charge in the first part of this jam, developing a gorgeous theme that peaks organically over the 14-15 minute mark. It breaks down into a pretty clear Jigsaw Earth intro shortly after. While this was the first Bazaar Escape of the year, this wasn’t even the first Jigsaw with Jordan, as he had tackled the song on 5/19/00. I find this version way more compelling, even though the song still isn’t at the level it would attain over the fall tour. This version has a very short pre-chase jam and a slightly longer mid-chase jam. The latter is pretty solid, with great atmospheric waves of sound from Magner, but it’s over before it can get very deep. The post-chase dub jam is once again the real highlight. The jam first moves through a chaotic trance passage, with Jordan’s dub bass line anchoring it, before seemingly heading back to the song at 13:30. After some more type one dub jamming, the jam breaks down at the 15 minute mark. Some Magpie teases lead the jam into a tense, vaguely Bazaar Escape atmospheric theme, punctuated by a Munchkin ending fakeout as the band lands back into Jigsaw. Excellent version. Vassillios is patient and atmospheric like all the best versions from 1999. Barber’s touch is feather-light for the first few minutes of the jam while Magner crafts the atmosphere. By the seven minute mark Barber begins building on a simple melancholy theme. The jam moves steadily along, ebbing and flowing and finally building to a triumphant crescendo beginning around 12:30. With no steam lost, the band moves on a dime out of bliss territory into the minor key of a Shimmy ending. The Shimmy peak is explosive, and the band vamps on a short outro jam that builds to an energetic Hot Air Balloon intro. Hot Air Balloon itself is well-played, but still standard.

Decent turnout for Tuesday night in New York City (discobiscuits.net)

The second set opens with the dyslexic completion of Shimmy. The jam out begins in a mellow yet haunting territory. Magner crafts an atmospheric soundscape that breaks down into a tense passage around 10:30. The jam smoothly builds up to a triumphant bliss passage, sounding at times like a Run Like Hell intro. Around the three minute mark the jam appears to be heading back toward more sinister territory, and it builds to a terrifying crescendo before Barber signals the Basis drop out of nowhere. Finally, a Basis without Mauricio! The bass slap section is the first time in this show where I can definitively feel Brownie’s absence; it’s not poorly played (on the contrary) but it lacks his specific touch. There is a nice drawn out middle jam (about four minutes) which features some solid full-band improv. Crisman gets to show off his chops in the main jam, which starts off pretty formless. Magner lays down a theme, but it’s a few minutes before Sammy comes in with a regular beat. Barber begins playing some mournful notes and Magner layers on waves of atmospheric synths, giving the first part of this jam a distinctive note of melancholy. Around the sixteen minute mark the jam begins to steadily move toward happier territory. The jam moves into some incredible atmospheric bliss before an effortless segue into Story. The Story jam is excellent, wasting no time in developing a trance-rock theme and building to an energetic, Magner dominated crescendo as the track changes. Barber takes over and moves the jam to distinctly sinister territory, and builds up to another Shimmy peak. After the Shimmy fakeout, the band drops into Pygmy Twylyte. This Pygmy reminds me very strongly of the 12/30/99 version, in that it immediately drops into a slowed down, type two jam. The jam moves through a remarkable stretch of territory for its unassuming length: from mellow jazz trance, to a chaotic breakdown, and finally to a gorgeous rock jam with a spectacular Barber crescendo. The jam breaks down after a beautiful uncomposed peak and drops into a Eulogy. After this spectacular jam, Eulogy has a short type one intro, but is otherwise played standard. After a strange rendition of You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate (tracked as “banter”), the band launches into Dribble. This Dribble, like the version from 12/30/99, is a rare “Happy” Dribble, which eschews the traditional tension and release Dribble hits in favor of a type two bliss jam. This version is particularly excellent, and makes the return to Dribble just shy of the thirteen minute mark. The Dribble outro is extremely short and not particularly focused. It is more of a peter out than a jam, and fades into an intro to Magner’s ill-fated Little Boy on the Moon, the second and final time that song would be played. It’s not a bad song, but it’s unsurprising that it didn’t stick around with the likes of Story, Hope, Ladies, Shelby Rose, etc. The jam does not diverge in any significant way from the song structure until the final couple minutes, when it builds to a neat crescendo, but even this isn’t particularly memorable. The jam segues into Loch Ness Monster, an instrumental song written by Barber with Brothers Past keyboardist Tom McKee, which holds the distinction of being the only (original) song performed by both bands. Without lyrics it’s a little harder to discern the song’s structure, but by the three minute mark we appear to be wholly in improv, and it doesn’t seem to return to the song at any point. This jam is an excellent exploration traversing many moods, from cautious, to introspective, to triumphant, and finally to demented, as it moves towards the ending of Spaga. The jam segues into the piano riffs of Spaga a la 10/28/99, and is very much worthy of being mentioned in the same breath. Excellent stuff. The second jam in Spaga is still very short but has some electronic synths, hinting at future development. Barber introduces the band, after which they launch into a long encore beginning with the dyslexic completion of Spaga. The Spaga jam is more restrained than typical; again, Magner plays a predominantly atmospheric role. Barber hangs in the background as well, and for several minutes the jam has no distinct leader. Gradually, Barber’s guitar work moves the jam out of melancholy and towards a more triumphant territory. The band follows suit and the jam moves towards Basis. Some excellent symphonic jamming and an excellent build into Basis follow. After a stellar Basis peak, the band performs a DJ segue to hit the end of Story; it’s not my favorite technique but it is well executed. Story has a very brief, sinister outro jam into the end of Party Favor, not terribly exploratory but very exciting. After this long encore segment, the band decides they have time for one more: a cover of Les Claypool’s Riddles. Here Crisman has an opportunity to really show off his bass prowess (and I’m pretty sure it’s him singing as well). The jam is fairly by-numbers, but even still I enjoy this tremendously.

This is an easy 5/5. Everything about this show strikes my fancy: the tightness of playing, the setlist construction, the massive JAMS… This is a monster. The second set was considerably better than the first, but all my favorite highlights are delineated below:

Highlights:

The entire Shimmy > Basis > Story > Shimmy fakeout > Pygmy > Eulogy

OK, the Eulogy itself was only fine, but every other jam in this segment is incredible. Couldn’t possibly pick a favorite. I’m torn between Shimmy > Basis, Basis > Story, and Pygmy > Eulogy, and whichever I picked would be my favorite of the show.

Loch Ness > Spaga

A rare song jammed into a rare section scores it some bonus points, but the jam here is actually insanely good too.

Vassillios > Shimmy

Excellent Vassillios trance, building on a bliss theme that transitions seamlessly into Shimmy's dark ending. It recalls the best bliss Shimmies of mid-1999.

Dribble

After the Dribble jam this segment kind of fell off, but it’s a pretty sweet take on the Happy Dribble.

> Bazaar >

Both the intro and outro jams to Bazaar are something special. Excellent Barber work on both.

Jigsaw

The first two jams don’t do much for me, but the dub jam briefly gets into some interesting territory, teasing Magpie and faking out Munchkin before making the return.

Stray Observations:

This is the first, and, technically, only show with Jordan Crisman on the bass for the entire show.

True to his ramblings on 5/20/00, Barber plays Bazaar Escape. His thought process was something along the lines of “the Roxy has a similar floor to the Crystal Ballroom, which is where we played my favorite Bazaar, so maybe we’ll play it at the Roxy too.” For my money, I think they topped it at this show.

I almost think Barber’s riff in the Bazaar Escape outro might be a tease of something, but I have no idea of what. If not, it’s an insanely impressive example of spontaneous theme creation. Listen to him develop the riff from 11:30-12:30 and then reprise it as the jam peaks.

There are Magpie and Munchkin Invasion teases in Jigsaw.

There are Little Bunny Foo Foo teases from Magner in the Flight of Hot Air Balloon.

Loch Ness Monster was performed only twice by the Biscuits, at this show and the next one. However, it remained a staple of Brothers Past’s early catalog until the middle of 2002, and there are also a few versions of their take on the song available on the Archive.

There are what might conceivably be called I-Man ending teases immediately preceding the Basis ending.

This is a LONG show, clocking in at over four hours. It is only a few minutes shy of what I believe to be the longest two set show, 12/29/98

—Andy

Notes From The Drop Zone - 6/23/20 (Andy)

As the Disco Biscuits took the field of Citizens Bank Park nearly six months since having played a proper concert, I was overwhelmed with feelings of awe and anticipation. The feeling was at once familiar and unprecedented; while the band was venturing into uncharted territory with their free benefit show in an empty stadium, it still felt intimately familiar. I had the same pre-show jitters that I always do before this band takes the stage, the same nervous anticipation that I was about to watch a grand experiment unfold, one that might fall flat on its face or result in the greatest musical experimentation I had ever heard.

There had been considerable buzz for this show in the days leading up—not always a great thing for a band which thrives best under minimal pressure. With that in mind, and considering how long it had been since the four had played together, I tried to keep my expectations reasonable (although I still couldn’t help running through the least plausible “what ifs” in my mind). The opening Home Again seemed to confirm that this would be a pretty standard run-through of the “hits,” such that they are. Home Again was played cleanly and competently, but at no point did it deviate from the norm. My expectations were thrown against the floor and shattered, however, as the band launched into Digital Buddha. Buddha is one of the best vehicles for dark trance-fusion jamming in the repertoire, and it is just about impossible to play a “typical” Buddha. The jam out was a nice tense groove, interspersed with some disaster siren effects from Barber (I know this pedal has numerous critics, but I think it would be hard to argue it was not used tastefully here). The jam began to pick up in tempo, with Barber’s playing becoming harsher and grungier, as the band segued deftly into Anthem. The shreddy and energetic Anthem broke down into a very groovy outro jam, and the whole band immediately locked into an excellent theme. The jam quickly resolved into an excellent Buddha ending, completing the sandwich. A quick jamless Hope provided a buffer between two sandwiches, as the band immediately launched into Spraypaint afterward. Spraypaint is a great jam vehicle as well, but unlike Buddha it is very frequently played as a “typical” Spraypaint. This is why I was very glad to see the band take Spraypaint out of the box, for what was probably my favorite jam of the night. The normal Spraypaint bliss very gradually crept into more sinister territory, and the band developed an excellent type two theme. This dark theme melted into a bliss section somewhat, as the band launched into their newest song, Running Into The Night. Running was either outro’d or unfinished (I think the latter, but I’m still not really sure with that song), and emerged into a triumphant major key jam that segued pretty quickly back into Spraypaint type one. The band launched into a standalone Crickets to close the show. Both jams were on the shorter side (I believe the Crickets was less than 20 minutes long), but the first jam particularly had a very cool, if perfunctory, first jam, with excellent trancey effects from Magner.

The band managed to exceed expectations with this short show. Clean playing, good setlist construction, and two or three jams that are worth revisiting. Highlights: Spraypaint > Running, Buddha > Anthem > Buddha.

—Andy

Notes From The Drop Zone - 6/23/20 (walsh)

The year is 2020. The place is Philadelphia. The band is the Disco Biscuits. The music is the reason.

With such a fractured society about and deep loss in my heart I was genuinely nervous as the stream began. The pressure was palpable through the TV and I wondered if the band we love could muster up the energy needed to allow their music to take off the way it must. The leadoff batter took to the plate and I could feel the tension as the first pitch was tossed. How would this work, what will this feel like, can we get a win finally? Play Ball. 

In an instant everything seemed to make sense again as the chords to 'Home Again' rung clear through my brain, this was what I was missing. A smile. A simple smile spread across my face as the words crested and for the first time in what felt like forever I was happy, I was able to laugh and sing along to my favorite band. All the sadness lifted and I began to dance, a kid again if but for a couple hours, and I was able to forget. I was surprised by the tone of the jam and realized quickly that this was going to a good time, this was going to work. As they wrapped up the song it seemed as though the band was going to play to the possibly new crowd with melodic, easily digestible Biscuits, but I was so wrong. 'Buddha' exploded across the screen and suddenly there was an energy that I did not think possible built in an empty stadium. The jam was frantic and not what I had expected for such a stage.  As Barber began to become more prevalent in the mix I jumped off the couch yelling 'Anthem,' scaring my cat half to death. This song has grown on most quickly and did not disappoint as it glided back into the end of 'Buddha' perfectly. After Brownie addressed the unseen audience the band tossed in a short, but well played 'Hope' that worked well as a palate cleanser. I do miss those 'Gentle nature of a woman' jams from 2007, but that is for another post. I was surprised at first by the 'Spraypaint' call, but quickly ran through the lyrics in my head and felt slightly embarrassed that I hadn't expected such a call to arms during such chaotic times. The band quickly left behind the main theme and ventured off into a dark milieu that fit the mood of our current situation perfectly. Grimy was the first word that popped into my head as they continued deeper into the abyss until a lighter, brighter jam lifted the band into 'Running Into the Night.' Coming from such a dark place seemed to take a little of the steam out of this version and the lyrics seemed to suffer most, it seemed almost unsure and didn't excite me as most of the previous versions of this new number had. All that was quickly forgotten as the band charged back to the 'Spraypaint' ending. This was one moment where the lack of crowd energy seemed obvious although it was done well. Then they dropped a big ol' 'Crickets' and I started to lose my mind. Standalone 'Crickets' are the stuff dreams are made of (nightmares are dreams ok?). The first jam was borderline industrial at times, drum n' bass adjacent if you will, and led to the second most obvious moment of the unfortunate disconnect such a technology cannot breach. The peak was done perfectly, if a bit brief, but without the explosiveness of a full room behind the band it passed a bit flat to me. Whatever, I was still pumped and the off-kilter funk jam was the perfect ending to such a unique night in the history of The Disco Biscuits.

I just have one question, can we get another one of these?

6/22/00 - Thursday, Irving Plaza, New York, NY

https://archive.org/details/db2000-06-22.akg391.1644

source: archive.org

Easily the strangest show of the year is this very short performance for the Jammy Awards in New York. The short setlist consists of four songs, all covers, all new to the repertoire. The show opens with Franz Schubert’s Opus 90, a lengthy and intricate classical composition. Les Claypool comes up after Opus 90 and the band runs through a cover of Riddles Are Abound Tonight by Claypool’s band Sausage (which, as far as I can tell, is just another name for the original lineup of Primus). There are a few minutes of amorphous inchoate Biscuits-esque improv in the final minutes, but otherwise this is a pretty straight run-through. After Riddles, the band launches into a rendition of Pink Floyd’s Have a Cigar. Magner does a respectable job on vox, and after the song the band launches into a tense outro jam. A mellow trance jam with Claypool vocal teases builds to a chaotic frenzy. Moments of brilliance shine through the chaos. Barber’s playing immediately prior to the segue is particularly inspired. The jam segues into Tomorrow Never Knows by the Beatles. The jamming is particularly aimless until shortly after the Reba teases, when it breaks down into a symphonic groove as Claypool sings the closing verses of Tomorrow Never Knows. The song closes with some ambient and psychedelic noise jamming. Included as a bonus on this version is the announcement of the 1999 Jam of the Year award, which goes to… The Disco Biscuits, for their Akira Jam.

A bizarre show and probably the most optional of the year. It’s worth hearing for the notability factor, and the Tomorrow Never Knows is nice and weird with some cool moments of brilliance.

Stray Observations:
Of the four covers debuted at this show, only Schubert’s Opus 90 was not played again. Riddles was played at both Crisman shows, 6/27 and 7/12, before being shelved permanently. Tomorrow Never Knows was shelved until Langerado 08, and was played once after that. Have A Cigar was played the most out of the four. It was shelved until 06 when it began appearing a few times a year, often with guest sit-ins, and was most recently performed on 2/7/09 with Warren Haynes.

This is perhaps the only show the band has ever played (excluding the first show ever) in which every song is a debut (cover or otherwise).

Barber says the Opus 90 is a song that he had wanted to play for a long time.

The Have a Cigar outro features Hello Skinny and The Wondrous Boatride vocal teases. Hello Skinny was a song by the Residents, but was also featured as a bonus track on Primus's Frizzle Fry, and the Wondrous Boatride was from the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film, an obsession of Claypool’s.

Tomorrow Never Knows features vocal teases of Reba (Phish) and Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin).

—Andy