Peaches En Randalia #40
Breathe in/Breathe out #6>Yes, but this is 2009, and the 6/5 2nd set is where the Biscuits really get down and move through some sort of interplanetary dimension by way of bass n drums and keys n guitar, all playing together in a perfect union of funked-out harmony, but it is the 1st set that really sets the template in place, really gears up the audience for what could be, really lets you know that they are in the Cosmic Zone.
Breathe in/Breathe out #5>Here comes Brad Sands. 2am, I think it was, summer of 2005. I couldnt have known it at the time, but Big Red would have only one more tour duty in this particular warm season for the next four years, and the next time, after 2006, it would be with Phish. Sure, Trey toured in 2006, arguably better than he had in 2005, but to most folks, that isnt saying much. They disliked anything post-Phish, and Trey was the arch enemy of anyone who loved Phish, and wanted them back so they could continue with their obsessive love affair. Who gained from this relationship remains to be seen. I loved the fall 2006 Anastasio live gigs with Jeff Sipe on drums. But I would, wouldnt I? I like free improvisation without a net within music. Hell, our legendary site editor (I rarely use the word legendary on a loose basis, and Im certainly not here) probably knows that I prefer Bomb Factory, 5/7/94, over the near perfect precision of 6/18/94. Why? I love Phish, too, but I also love the organized chaos of their mid-period work. In 2009, thus far, precision and a fun vibe seems to be the agenda, and we dark and weird souls wonder when these four magicians (you meant musicians, right? No. No, I didnt.) will cut loose and return to their original good times plus experimental base. Or is that just me? I was never comfortable in the group Phish fan mentality and that has not always served my anti-social nature well. My loss. I trudge on with my strange dreams.
Breathe in/Breathe out I>We will start with an intermission. These are some notes that have more to do with the Disco Biscuits delightful resurgence as opposed to Phish, 2009.
Breathe in/Breathe out #4>That momentum either arrived at, or was extended to, their landmark Red Rocks gig. Indeed, the band had never headlined at the monolithic, almost pre-human, stoned tapestry of a venue, and the quartet built a monument to a monument.
Breathe in/Breathe out #3>Ogden was the quiet little show that prefaced the Red Rocks mayhemBisco Inferno, indeed, with the band delivering two different sandwichesan ambient superstar called Spacebirdmatingcall in the opening set, and Morph Dusseldorf in the latterthat continued to solidify the notion that although the Disco Biscuits havent changed much, they are just better than theyve been in a very long time.
Breathe in/Breathe out #2>You could feel the soundboard hit your chest. Like their Red Rocks and Ogden gigs, the band was playing sets in Cleveland where they had mastered conceptual continuity. They didnt just seguesongs swam, arced, looped, plunged, paddled, and slowly moved forward with a confidence that peaked while never suggesting, nor playing, a trite climatic conclusion. The Disco Biscuits in 2009 are playing all the notes in between, the silent ones that resonate, and they are also conjuring up some fairly heavy and fluid tangible sheets of sound that come from some sincere placeBiscos back, and yet they were never really gone. A drummer has departed, and a new one has been around for quite some time, but the changes within his rhythm are debatable, and not as important as the result: this band cooksagain. It aint 1999, but 2009 is just as damned perfect in its own little organized and chaotic way. When did this momentum begin, or was it always under the surface? Did it arrive in Colorado intact, or was it in the midst of some sort of landmark tour where DVDs are crafted ala Anastasios 2005 Red Rocks morsels, or is it something much bigger?
* – inverted, intermissioned, and incomplete, but never indifferent