The Disco Biscuits are back.
Now, I’m the first to admit that’s something of a misleading opening statement. After all, the Philadelphia-based transfusion quartet has been touring the country and churning out new music for nearly thirty years with nary an extended break or hiatus, but in the past year or so, something has changed.
Maybe it’s something in the Philly-area municipal water supply, where a majority of the band still resides to this day. More than likely though, it’s a combination of some invigorating new musical endeavors that have spurned this much-welcomed artistic renaissance.
Most signs point to the impending release of the group’s first full-length album since 2011, Revolution in Motion (out 3/29), an outer space-centric rock opera, as the catalyst behind this recent resurgence. Throw in the inception of a theatrical adaptation of guitarist Jon Gutwillig’s seminal rock opera Hot Air Balloon entitled “The Very Moon”, which was conceived by and co-written with long-time New Yorker author Nicholas Schmidle, along with the realization of a lifelong dream for bassist Marc Brownstein to perform live with his son Zach in the Brownstein Family Band, and it’s no wonder this group has been engulfed by a “bubble of positivity” that has led to some of their most inspired performances since the early 2000s when original drummer Sam Altman was at the helm.
The Biscuits looked to carry that momentum into the beltway district of the Nation’s Capital as they kicked off the spring leg of their 2024 Why We Dance tour at the Fillmore Silver Spring just outside of Washington DC with a pair of monstrous shows that saw a dichotomous blend of old and new material performed throughout four seamless eighty-plus minute sets.
Starting things off shortly after 8 pm on Thursday, the group immediately set the tone for the evening in the chandelier-adorned ballroom with a wild forty-plus minute excursion through “Shocked”, a track from the aforementioned Revolution in Motion, which saw Brownstein eschewing his traditional bass guitar to lay down some tantalizingly nefarious sounds with his Moog keyboard rig. After eventually segueing into “Ring the Doorbell Twice”, a newer composition whose origins stem from a particularly tasty jam during a 2023 performance, the Biscuits wrapped things up with a hair-raising rendition of Gutwillig’s iconic “Helicopters.”
After a “brief” set break, the band returned with the Latin vibes of another classic, “Little Shimmy in a Conga Line”, that stretched for well over twenty minutes before delving into the instrumental “The Great Abyss” with a brilliant segue that defines what the Biscuits do best as they seamlessly drift from the bouncy, melodic and classically-informed composed section of “Shimmy” to the dark wizardry of “Abyss” without a hitch.
A lengthy jaunt through “Pimp Blue Rikki” led to the explosive climax of the anthemic “Crickets” (technically an “inverted” version for those keeping score at home), before the quartet wrapped things up by returning to the closing segment of “Shimmy” as well as an encore performance of the somewhat rare Gutwillig gem, “Down to the Bottom.”
The band returned the following evening, this time supported by an invigorating opening performance from the power trio Octave Cat, with a pair of uninterrupted sets that had a decidedly more old-school feel to them.
Gutwillig, who was sporting a brand new sunburst Paul Reed Smith guitar gifted to him by the luthier himself earlier that afternoon, commenced the second night’s proceedings with his classic ode to a track star, “Shem-Rah Boo” that, similar to “Shocked” from the previous night’s opening slot, stretched to nearly the forty-minute mark with a segment that briefly touched on the theme from the Grateful Dead’s “Mind Left Body” jam, and featured some molten guitar solos from Gutwillig, before dropping into the haunting Hot Air Balloon track, “Voices Insane.”
Another typically high-energy jam that blurred the lines between house, drum & bass, and psychedelic rock eventually led to “Buy The Time”, a newer original that saw the entire band dialed in, particularly drummer Allen Aucoin, before charging into the ending of another classic, “Svenghali”, to close out the opening stanza.
The final set of the two-night run began with a heartfelt nod to International Women’s Day from Brownstein with a scorching version of “And The Ladies Were The Rest Of The Night”, from the bassist’s own apocalyptic rock opera, Chemical Warfare Brigade. A patient jam eventually found its way into the iconic riff from “Above the Waves”, leading to an inverted version of the Hot Air Balloon anthem before landing on “Shadow”, which featured some deft piano runs from keyboardist Aron Magner.
The Biscuits wrapped up the multi-night run with the 80’s vibes of “Fire Will Exchange” and an explosive return to “Ladies” before an encore performance of fan-favorite “Digital Buddha.”
