Photos by Dave Vann
The Scene: Nothing is quite as magical as Red Rocks on a perfect Summer’s Night. Unfortunately for The Disco Biscuits they seem to be followed by cold, rain, snow, or any other number of weather issues that would discourage just about any other band from ever leaving the house. It’s become a joke within the band that as Pete Shapiro has his rainbow making machine while TDB has their storm maker. After what has seemed like decades of being plagued by the worst weather imaginable, the stars finally seemed to align for the Philadelphia based (can we even say this anymore?) quartet while the fans and band were treated to what was a flawless night on The Rocks. To add to that, the Biscuits have been playing as well as they have in years so those in attendance were ready for the band to finally deliver their Red Rocks masterpiece. In years past, the band has attempted to make their Red Rocks performances special by adding gimmicks like dancers, pyro, and other things that just never seemed to click. This year they played it straight and served up two sets of straight up, unadulterated Biscuits and turned in what most will agree was their best Red Rocks performance yet.
The Disco Biscuits: I’ve always struggled to really get into daytime Biscuit sets. There is just something about their music that is best suited for the dark and dank clubs or being surrounded by lasers under the stars. I am sure the band is aware of this sentiment and they did a great job of starting things off with some tropical tunes that are more suited than others for the last hour or so of daylight we were dancing in when they hit the stage. “Little Shimmy In A Conga Line” (shout out to my boy Dan for calling this one and the “Floodlights” opener from night 1) plays exactly how it sounds and the pulsing salsa vibe had the entire crowd shaking their hips from the first notes. Wasting no time, they got right into the trancefusion sound that has made them pioneers and godfathers of the jamtronica movement. As things gained steam and built-up into what sounded like a monster “Great Abyss,” things seemed a bit off. Whether it was the sunlight, the band adjusting to moving from a small theater like The Ogden to the vastness of Red Rocks, or the now four nights of raging that was polluting my brain, things just weren’t firing on all cylinders yet. Not to say the band wasn’t playing well, they definitely were, but things had yet to reach Maximum Biscocity levels.
Things started to click more and more as the band continued to head into “Great Abyss” territory before faking out everyone in the crowd and segueing into an inverted version of “Humuhumunukukuapua’a,” another tropical sounding number well suited for the dwindling moments of daytime we were in. The island rhythms continued to keep booties shaking and smiles glowing as the band seemed to have finally found the footing they needed to deliver what the crowd hoped would be their best Red Rocks show to date. As the “Humu” seemed to fade, the band slammed into another inversion (this is when they jam into the ending of a song first then head into the beginning of the song). “Crystal Ball” is one of my favorites but things slipped off the tracks a bit to the chagrin of many in the audience. While I wouldn’t trade my experiences seeing this band for anything, seeing as many shows as I have has trained my ear to the flawlessness this band is capable of, so flubs and speed bumps like this one surely stand out more to folks like me than most in the crowd. The jam out of “Ball” got things back on track and, as the light finally started to give way to the darkness, the band, almost like a vampire sensing those final beams of sunlight had disappeared, locked back in and dropped into the ending of “Bernstein and Chasnoff” almost out of nowhere.
With the sun gone, darkness set in and the lasers that have become synonymous with the band’s aesthetic made their first appearance of the night. It can’t be understated what a HUGE part of the show the lights are for TDB and LD Johnny R Goode is one of the best in the business. The way he has woven the lasers into the rest of his amazing production is truly breathtaking and this Red Rocks show was one of his absolute best. By now fans seemed to look at each other with that look of “its fucking on now” and the band wasted no time responding accordingly. Every band has their big gun tunes and with so many of them left in the arsenal it was time to start busting them out. From the first notes that followed “B&C” it was obvious the biggest gun of them all was getting ready to be fired. While it may not have been the deepest or most drawn out intro ever, any hardcore Biscuit fan knows those first notes of “Basis For A Day” and the anticipation of the aforementioned Maximum Biscocity was coming our way.
After the twist and turns of its first composed sections “Basis” releases with the band and crowd singing the iconic “Oooooooooohhhhhs” of its chorus before dropping into the dirtiest, nastiest techno madness known to man. For the first time of the night the full on “Untz” that is what the band is known for was on display. Its funny to just look around and see people getting down and low with their dance moves while sporting a look of disgust on their face. To the uninitiated it would seem like a full on brawl was about to break out and I guess that is kind of what happens when the band is playing like that. The band throws haymakers from the stage and the crowd responds with an energy and fury that only incites the band more. This musical pugilism went back and forth for about 20 minutes before guitarist Jon Gutwillig, known to fans as “Barber,” took the reins and delivered a blistering, furious solo that brought the song to its frenetic peak. Once it stopped, bassist Marc Brownstein thanked the fans, the crew, the nights support Twiddle, and prepped the crowd for a set break performance by Ghostland Observatory before Barber cranked it up one more time. This had the crowd fist pumping, head banging, and basically just losing its shit in general before bringing things in for a landing and set break.
Ghostland is definitely not in my wheelhouse but compared to some previous Bisco Inferno acts it was better than nothing and I will say their lights and stage show was pretty impressive. That said, at this point it would have taken something like Beck w/ Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, and the ghosts of David Bowie and Prince to hold my attention and stave off the feelings of wanting The Disco Biscuits back on the stage.
With just one more set of Biscuits left on what was a marathon four night run, anticipation levels were sky high. Would the band take things to that special place that only they can or would this be a bit of a victory lap spent hugging friends and just soaking in our favorite band? Within a few minutes it was fairly obvious. The second set started with a cover of Muse’s “Knights of Cydonia” and things just took off from there. Once they hit the jam in “Cydonia” it was time for the full on Bisco assault we had all been waiting for. Things were clicking and the band was dialed in. It’s hard to explain to those who haven’t witnessed it what happens with things fall into place like that, but when the band ceases to become four individuals, and melds into an eight armed monster, it is something to behold. “Cydonia” turned in what was probably the jam of the night up until that point but the band was not nearly done. “Sweating Bullets” was a rare treat and the jam from “Bullets” started to head into some familiar and wanted territory.
As the “Bullets” jam built up Barber once again took control and began to launch the band into a monster, inverted version of “Above The Waves.” “Waves” contains one of the more iconic peaks in TDB’s catalog and Barber absolutely ripped this one to the delight of the near sold-out crowd. What happened next was a bit of a mind-fuck for even the most die hard TDB fan so bare with me as I try to explain what happened. After the huge peak in “Waves” (remember this was inverted so the start of the song was not played at this point) the song drops into a simple yet playful four chord groove before the band starts singing again. In true Disco Biscuits fashion the band slayed the huge peak, dropped into the groove but instead of continuing to the vocal part they hung around a jammed that groove for a bit. Now, while this isn’t business as usual it’s hardly the first time they have done this, (see the 2/13/09 version for what my friends and I like to call “Magner’s Pool Jam”), but instead of a short vamp the band launched into unexplored waters seemingly never to head back. As this jam seemed to get further and further away from “Waves” it seemed to get closer and closer to what I had been waiting to hear all weekend. As any Bisco fan can tell you, it can be easy to hear the band teasing certain songs and whether they actually are or not is always up for debate. This week I was sure the band had been teasing “Spacebirdmatingcall” just about every song but had refused to actually drop into it. By Saturday night my friends couldn’t do anything but laugh at me every time my ears perked up and I would grab them and yell “SPACEBIRD!!!” in their face. At this point I was questioning my sanity and wondering if I had lost my ear for the band but this time I would not be denied. Despite taking their sweet ass time, and I say that lovingly, the band FINALLY dropped into those amazing melodies and there was no denying the “Spacebird” was about to come and destroy us all.
There is nothing like finally getting your favorite song after 4 nights of anticipation and begging with the Bisco gods and it’s even better when they absolutely make that song their bitch. I know I was not alone in wanting the “SBMC” to drop and judging by the people around me it was a godsend. I can’t remember dancing so hard, with such a huge smile on my face, surrounded by so many amazing friends both old and new. I can’t even try to describe what the band was doing during this as I was completely lost in the moment and having as much fun as a human being possibly can. To say this was the highlight of the weekend would be criminally understating things. After that “Spacebird,” the band could have just dropped their instruments, walked of stage, and turned on the house music and I would have been totally fine but they were nowhere close to being done. As “Spacebird” flew off into the ether, the band kept the full on dance assault going and segued into a short but sweet “Rock Candy,” a nasty little club banger in its own right.
After the sweaty mass of humanity that was The Ogden for 3 nights it was so nice to be under the stars and have a ton of room to dance our asses off and in the midst of this monster segment people were throwing down hard. Sometimes Disco Biscuit fans can get the reputation for being too cool for school, but when the band is playing like this it is amazing to see people just lose their minds and dance like maniacs. As the band left “Rock Candy” mountain it was hard to take even a second to try and figure out where they was heading next, now that “Spacebird” was in the rear view I struggled to try and figure out where things were going. Would it be “Confrontation?” It definitely sounded like that for a few minutes. Would they take a left turn and go into something epic like “Magellan” or “Once The Fiddler Paid?” As I tried to wrap my brain around this with others in my crew, the band made things face-palmingly simple for us. As only TDB can do, they slowly brought the spaceship back into the atmosphere and as that simple, four chord groove beginning to peek its head out more than a few in the crowd simply stopped dancing and had a look of childlike bewilderment on their face.
After what seemed like an eternity of insanity the band had brought things back to “Above The Waves” and dropped into the verse they had made a right turn from so long ago. Again it’s hard to explain how fucking bad ass it is that these guys can take what is normally a short, mundane part of their songs and turn it into the kind of exploratory, monster segment that they had just done. NOBODY does this like The Disco Biscuits and when they execute something like that it is the kind of mind fuckery that keeps us coming back for more. Lucky for us the band was not done. I don’t know if it counts as an inversion or a dyslexic version but the band finished “Waves,” started it up from the beginning then took us on one more mind melt of a jam before finishing the set back into “Little Shimmy In A Conga Line.”
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing my favorite band at my favorite venue, surrounded by my favorite people in the world several times now but have always looked back at those previous shows wanting more. While there were certainly some highlights at those other shows, things never reached the levels they did on Saturday night. It’s the performance fans of this band have been waiting for at Red Rocks and it was certainly something to behold. As if the good feelings weren’t flowing through the crowd enough, the band welcomed their crew member Damon and his pregnant girlfriend Sylvia on to the stage. This brought back fond memories for me as two of my closest friends got engaged onstage at Red Rocks a few years back but keeping with the night’s over-the-top theme, things went one step further. After the proposal the newly ordained Allen Aucoin grabbed the mic and proceeded to marry the happy couple. “Do you babe, take this babe, to be your babe….” brought some serious feels to everyone in attendance and as the newlyweds embraced and frollicked off the stage.
By this point there wasn’t much left for anyone to do and after a very short but sweet (and appropriate) “Home Again” the band took their bows and the crowd gave one more thunderous ovation. In my opinion this was not only the best set of the weekend but the band had finally delivered its Red Rocks masterpiece and capped their best run in CO in recent memory. TDB fans joke about the band’s tumultuous past and have learned to revel in these times when they are playing at their peak. Hopefully for both fans and the band alike they figure out a way to keep this lightning in the bottle and continue to play like this for years to come.
Energy: A-
Musicianship: A
Sound: B+
Stage Presence: B
Set/Light Show: A+
Overall: A
[…] For a full breakdown of the nights madness you can read my review from the show here. […]