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
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