It was eight years in the making, but finally completed. The Disco Biscuits released Planet Anthem, their first studio album since Senor Boombox yesterday. Interest surrounding the album was suppressed, probably due in part to the band constantly revising the release date over the past couple years. The presale caused some hype by offering gag bonuses (Barber whispering the lyrics to Korkrete under your bed) for preordering the album, but also included some legit add-ons. One bonus was tickets to either of the album release parties at the Theatre of Living Arts. In my mind, for $30 you're getting a Biscuits' show, and as an added bonus their new studio release. I mean, do people actually listen to Disco Biscuit studio material?
I went into this show not knowing what to expect, but assumed a majority of the night would be allotted to the new material. What we got was the exact opposite. With the exception of the first song of the evening (Step Inside) and the last (a cover of Gary Numan's Cars), every song was debuted live by the Disco Biscuits in 2000 or earlier. To be in a building so integral in the band's history added to the nostalgia of the evening.
If all that wasn't enough, the Biscuits nearly segued the entire show. A short interval after the first song of each set was the only break the band would give themselves. After Step Inside warmed up the evening, the band played for an hour and thirteen minutes straight in what would be an awesome first set. The bluesy segment contained four songs that exemplify the Biscuits. The highlight being the 7-11 and subsequent segue into an inverted Boop. With a close to thirty minute Mr. Don to end the set, how could you complain?
When Down To The Bottom started the second set it almost seemed like this was a fan selected setlist from the Planet Anthem presale. The list of longtime fan-favorite, heavy-hitters didn't stop. The Biscuits would go on to play a segment of music nonstop for eighty minutes. Crickets was played from the beginning instead of the middle section being extracted and placed randomly in a jam. It was so good to hear a funked out crix intro. A Minions tease in a jammy intro to basis was the only hint of the new album we got all night. The jam in Basis got people moving, especially with Magner's "All your bases are belong to us" though the vocoder. The inverted Shimmy is easily the best part of the set and probably the highlight of the evening. Cars for an encore was fun, especially considering it's only the second time they've played it.
This was a more jazzed out bluesy night for the Biscuits and I loved it. It could be one from the annals of Bisco history that would've been considered great in the mid 90's to the present on setlist alone. Ironically enough, the setlist was trimmed significantly from the original (pictured below). The night felt like a intimate celebration of a milestone for the band. Play them all like that and we'll keep coming back.
The Disco Biscuits @ the Theatre of Living Arts 03.15.10 [Download or Listen at the LMA]
3 comments:
Great review! Thanks for taping this. One of the best 2nd sets I've seen by them in a long long time. My kind of show.
Thanks so much for the review and the recording!
I hate to be a troll (with an exception for philly related garbage) but man, do I hate philly and almost everything that comes out of it. With whoever broke their wrist, or whatever, they they just pack it up and stop already.
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