Photos and Words: Jason Woodside

The fall always seems to be a great time of year for tour, and this holds especially true for the Disco Biscuits. In 2008, however, the band did not embark on an autumn tour, and this, coupled with a stellar 2009, led to some serious anticipation for this year’s Planet Anthem Fall Tour.

Songs from the highly anticipated new album are slowly but surely being worked into the catalog. While some of them are still met with mixed emotions, it is pretty clear that it will not be long before they lead to some truly inspired improvisation. On September 24th and 26th, the Biscuits stopped through Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, and both shows lived up to the anticipation.

The Cannery Ballroom is located in downtown Nashville, in what used to be a flour mill built in 1883. The Cannery building was converted into a venue in the ’70s, yet still maintains the look of an old factory. The look, while charming in a sense, has the downside of obstructed views and average sound. You wouldn’t find many people complaining about the venue tonight however, as the show, from start to finish, was a high energy dance party.

READ ON for more of Jason’s thoughts and photos…

Over the past nine months, Biscuit shows have had the tendency of opening up with either a stand-alone version of a new song or a heavy-hitting crowd favorite. Both nights in Tennessee saw huge openers, and an instant feeling that either evening would be a frantic, high-octane affair.

In Nashville, they opened up with a terrific rendition of Little Shimmy In A Conga Line. The jam went on for 25 minutes before segueing into Boom Shanker – originally a Conspirator (Magner and Brownstein side project) tune. This down-tempo and ambient song didn’t really mesh well, and the energy did not pick back up until the build-up jam segueing into the end of Shimmy. One of the highlights of the set came out of Park Avenue – a song composed by keyboardist Aron Magner. Magner led the jam out of the song with intricate Victor Wooton-esque slap bass lines on his synthesizer. The first set ended with a guitar freak-out Digital Buddha led by Jon “Barber” Gutwillig.

Set two was a shining example of what the Disco Biscuits do best: powerful build-up jams and segues with non-stop energy. The highlight was an 18 minute rendition of Triumph. The jam into and out of the song were just the kind of thing one comes to see Bisco for: patiently built, yet raucous and sustained jams. With that patience comes a uniform and fluid sound which allows the band to move in and out of songs in a fashion that seems effortless. Drummer Allen Aucoin led with some funk beats for an interesting foundation that the band quickly took to, and the jam out of Triumph and into Spacebirdmatingcall was worth the price of admission alone.

The encore featured a new song, ¿Donde?, before the night was finished off with the fan favorite Safety Dance. The tour would head to Atlanta before a second night in Tennessee. Anyone not planning on going to one or both of these shows was surely reconsidering after Nashville’s throw-down.

The historic Tennessee Theater in Knoxville is the polar opposite of the Cannery. It is more than twice the size, is aesthetically gorgeous, features great sight-lines and the sound is impeccable. The crowd turned out in large numbers despite a football game that you could hear from the venue, and the band eagerly responded to the energy of this large and rowdy crowd.

After opening with a new song the previous night in Atlanta, the band got back to business with a Jigsaw Earth opener that had new and old fans getting down from the start. The first time appearance of Flash Mob led to an interesting segue into Caterpillar. This segment, which featured transitions into an unfinished Helicopters as well as Minions before completing Caterpillar, was easily the highlight of the night. The patient build-up jams and ensuing freak-outs had the whole theater – and even a few security guards – raging.

The second set jumped off with a somewhat uncommon Little Lai – a song from bassist Marc Brownstein’s Rock Opera Chemical Warfare Brigade. Following a rather lifeless Pimp Blue Rikki, things kicked back into high gear with an all-over-the-place segment that was kicked off with a perfect version of Astronaut. The patient and very spacey jam led into Sound One before things picked up for the ending of The Very Moon. The segue back into a powerful ‘Suspended in the Air’ jam in Astronaut seemingly came from nowhere and the jam to finish the tune was nothing short of perfect, blissful Bisco.

A briefly fumbled Confrontation closed the set. The song started off slow but soon had the entire band, especially Browstein, firing on all cylinders. Above the Waves was the perfect encore to compliment the extremely high energy second set. The mellow and uplifting song left the entire theater raged out, yet wanting and needing more.

Disco Biscuits
September 24, 2009
Cannery Ballroom,
Nashville, TN

Two Fresh opened
Set I: Little Shimmy In A Conga Line> Boom Shanker> Little Shimmy In A Conga Line, Park Avenue, Digital Buddha
Set II: Save The Robots> Triumph> Spacebirdmatingcall, Rockafella> Save The Robots
Encore: ¿Donde?, The Safety Dance

Disco Biscuits
September 26, 2009
Tennessee Theater
Knoxville, TN

Infected Mushroom (Live Band) opened
Set I: Jigsaw Earth, Flash Mob1> Caterpillar> Helicopters2> Minions> Caterpillar
Set II: Little Lai, Pimp Blue Rikki, Astronaut> Sound One> The Very Moon3> Astronaut,Confrontation
Encore: Above The Waves

1 1st time played
2 unfinished
3 ending only [setlists via PT Bisco]

HT Staff

Hidden Track was started in October of 2006 and features a team of dedicated contributors from across the country. This article was written by one of the newest members of our team or was a collaboration by more than one contributor. Want to contribute to Hidden Track? Send us a pitch to scott at glidemagazine dot com.

Website - More Posts