Words: Carla Danca
Images: Jeremy Gordon

Fresh off the tropical and highly successful Holidaze in Jamica, The Disco Biscuits returned to a wintery New York City to close out the year and ready themselves for a full scale tour. Bassist Marc Brownstein may have acted coy during interviews about the five show, six night run in the center of Times Square during the busiest night of the year but fans certainly didn’t.

Neither the freezing cold winds nor the intense double ring of of cops and security surrounding the Nokia Theater scared off fans looking to party down or search out an extra. The band’s first attempt at playing a 5 night run at one venue, especially NYC during the holidays, couldn’t have gone better with at least 2 shows sold out well in advance and the others rumored to be at or near capacity.

READ ON for more of Carla’s review and Jeremy’s photos from the Nokia…

While many fans expected a run chock full of favorites, especially since the shows landed only days away from the 10 year anniversary of Rock Opera Hot Air Ballon. Bisco, as usual, did what they do best… exactly what they wanted. The preview of a few choice grooves left off the upcoming album over the run provided a look at the band’s newest face. While many commented that you could truly see the cohesion in the band and were excited to hear something fresh and new there were more than a few people nostalgic for the dance parties that Bisco shows are famous for.

The energy on the stage during the entire run was incredible, from the sometimes playful jabs at friends (Umphrey’s) or silly asides of stories of snowball fights, to the band member’s constant jumping around it was clear that the audience weren’t the only ones there to party.

With extra lights rented and trucked in especially for the event and fans decked out in party hats and glow charms, The Disco Biscuits pulled out three full sets on 12/31. Kicking things off with the party-like 7-11 and ending with an all out sing along in Caterpillar, the boys raised the stakes in round two.  As many anticipated, the NYE coutdown of Spaga -> Astronaut -> Helicopters was a tight explosion that left the crowd doused in balloons and glitter. With jaws dropped and fists pumping the fans anticipation for the 3rd set grew, guessing which songs would finish off the run and hoping to hear a few more favorites.

But, in an unexpected move, the 3rd set started out with three new songs, Meditation, Autumn Breeze and possible new favorite High Speed Racer. It wasn’t the first time they had been shown over the course of the run and Brownie made sure to let everyone know that the new album still has more unreleased material.

Judging the new songs fairly at this point would be difficult and unfortunately at this point in the night many fans were simply looking for classic Bisco, something they could dance and sing along with. Hopefully with more than a few interesting parts and some road work the jams will soon fill out nicely and many of the skeptics will see the light. The third set also contained sit-ins with band favorite (and often maligned) Matisyahu and members of The Egg, leaving the band to encore with an odd, meandering story of bongs, blunts, Bill Clinton and the Jonas Brothers, during a rushed Nughuffer before time ran out.

After these five shows it seems that one thing is for certain – Bisco is out and ready to tour again. From the new material shown over the run to the promise of a full album dropping soon there are plenty of reasons to hit up some of the upcoming shows. Winter tour starts at the Calvin Theater in Northhampton on 1/16 and runs through March with an appearance at Langerado.  Rumors persist that a West Coast tour will take hold this summer, but with all things unexpected with The Disco Biscuits, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Setlist:

12/31/08 Nokia Theatre, New York, NY
Three sets
Set I: 7-11> Rock Candy> Vassillios> Trucker’s Choice, Caterpillar
Set II: Uber Glue> Tamarin Alley, Spaga> Astronaut¹> Helicopters> Air Song> Helicopters
Set III: Meditation> The Autumn Breeze, High Speed Racer, Magellan> Jam²> Magellan, M80
Encore: Nughuffer

¹ with countdown
² with Matisyahu on vocals  [via PT Bisco]

Jeremy Gordon

Jeremy Gordon is a photographer, registered architect, and current Jersey City resident. Beginning in a small bar in Teaneck, he started photographing local bands and eventually built up to such legendary artists as, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Etta James, Furthur, Phish, and Snoop Dogg. Jeremy has stated that live music photography at its best, is about capturing the split second of sweat and emotions shared between an artist and their audience and that the honor of standing in front of the creators of Rock and Roll and 20,000 of their loyal fans is one of the greatest thrills in the world. Jeremy can be contacted at gordonjer@gmail.com

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