The Biscuits Drop The Hammer
Rapid Fire Review Week continues with HT’s favorite Disco Biscuits Diehard Matt Quinn’s review of this weekend’s two Hammerstein shows:
It’s been a long year for The Disco Biscuits. With “new” drummer Allen Aucoin at the kit, virtually every fan of the band agrees that they are playing with the kind of vigor and creativity that’s been absent since the end of 2002.
Sure there were the brief flashes of greatness in the ’03-’05 era. But for the most part it was directionless and unfocused, a band very unsure of where it was going, a band running out the clock on its first incarnation. After an adequete NYE run, a short spring tour and a summer spent on the festival circuit, the Biscuits’ fall tour has seen them firing on all cylinders in venues across the country, and the shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom on 11/24 & 11/25 were certainly no exception.
The first night opened with a section that featured exactly the type of setlist creativity Biscuits fans have been craving. The Overture is normally a tightly composed, classical style piece that features a trance jam in the center of it. In lieu of the trance this night, the Biscuits dropped into a 30-second composed segment of Little Lai, then a 30-second composed segment of Bazaar Escape, then a 30-second composed segment of House Dog Party Favor, then directly into an entire Bach Invention (#13 in A Minor, to be exact), then picked up the end of The Overture where the trance section would normally end.
The entire segment was obviously rehearsed, and rehearsed well. There was no jamming between the segments; they were played as though it were one giant composed piece. Apparently the setlist had this labeled as “The OverBerzerk,” but I’ve taken to caling it “The Berzerkerture.” I just think it rolls off the tongue better. Whatever you want to call it, it was well-planned and flawlessly executed.
Read on for the rest of Quinn’s stellar review and download his recordings from both the 11/24 and 11/25 Hammerstein shows…
Borat's Musical Playlist
We’re more than 90 posts into this blog’s mediocre existence, and not once have we cross-promoted anything from our Glide Magazine parent. I was hoping to make it to 100 posts without doing so, but like Julio César Chávez in his quest for 100 straight victories to start his career, this is my defeat. It’s not that I’m even promoting Glide, it’s […]
Grousing The Aisles VI: Jerry Garcia
That graphic always makes me smile. I’m still waiting for someone to get the reference of the title of this department — come on people, dig deep. Anyway, since last week’s column featured no Grateful Dead or Dead-related projects at all, this edition of GTA is fully dedicated to Jerry Bear, the Godfather of Wook. Let’s get over that Wednesday hump together with some help from Jerome.
In 1987, Jerry hit Broadway for a series of 18 shows at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Can you imagine the smell in that theater at the end of that run? Just a bit of a different crowd than those seeing Beauty and The Beast, which has been playing at the Lunt-Fontanne for the past seven years.
Garcia’s estate recently released the Halloween show as part of its Pure Jerry series, but we’re gonna focus on the night of the 25th here. Jerry and the acoustic band plays an amazing first set, presented here in all its soundboard glory. For the second set, Mr. Jorts himself, Bob Weir, joined his uncle Jerry for the final four songs of the evening. The second set was clearly taped in the audience, yet the sound is surprisingly good and the performance, while not tight, is interesting. The highlight is the first and only JGB All Along The Watchtower. Other shows from the run newly featured on etree are 10/23 and 10/24…
A Darker Shade of Greyboy
As if anyone in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut tri-state area needed an additional incentive to see the quasi-reunited-and-it-quasi-feels-so-good Greyboy Allstars at the Nokia Theater two days before New Year’s Eve, the band has announced a special guest for the evening: We are very pleased to announce the addition of our (everybodys) hero, drummer extraordinare ?uestlove of The […]
Thankful For Wilco
Rapid Fire Review Week continues with Hidden Track senior hipster correspondent Luke Sacks’ account of Wilco‘s 11/24/06 show…
Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy recently decked a fan that happened to be dumb enough to jump on stage, getting a little too close for comfort. That solitary action must have released years of hostility, because on Friday night at Chicago’s Auditorium Theater, Tweedy and his Wilco bretheren soaked up every ounce of fun in the room.
Wilco’s sound these days is a bit like Bob Dylan and Radiohead thrown in a blender and pureed. The lyrics — still as poignant and moving as ever — are now cocooned in building electronics and whirling riffs that flow from the all-shapes-and-sizes guitars of Nels Cline. Where Tweedy’s raspy voice and “angry-musician” personality once dominated, Cline’s assault on his instrument and frenetic body language have moved closer to center stage for an increasing share the spotlight. Pulsating and gyrating with each chord, Cline shakes and twitches and produces a spectrum of sound that spirals every which way before coming to a screeching halt in time to let Tweedy’s voice be heard loud and clear.
Tweedy began the show with two slower songs: the new “Shake it Off” and the similar-sounding “Hell Is Chrome” from A Ghost is Born. Unlike most bands that like to start things off rocking and/or rolling, Tweedy is known for beginning shows with slower, more brooding selections that give the show a more intimate feel. It wasn’t until the third tune, “Handshake Drugs,” that the energy between the crowd and band synched up with each other…
Umphrey's McGee Winter Tour 2007
Can you believe we’re actually talking about shows in the Year of Our Lord Two-Thousand Seven? This year has just flown the fuck by, right?
Umphrey’s McGee this morning announced the beginning of their 2007 touring plans. Read on after the jump for the full list of dates…Bring your helmets, kids!
Have A Cow, Maaaan
Rhino Records is finally starting to recoup some of the mucho dinero they laid out as part of a ten-year licensing deal with the Grateful Dead. Get your Christmas gift cards ready, folks — on January 23rd, Rhino will release Grateful Dead: Live At The Cow Palace as part of a three-disc set.
Luckily for the fans, Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux is still on board. Read on to hear what he has to say about the 12/31/76 show and this release…
Pullin' 'Tubes: Scouser Edition
Tuesday begets YouTubes, and lots of ’em. Here’s 45 minutes worth of cool shit to shepherd your boredom while the cowboy earns his wages… Let’s start things off with a video my buddy John sent me of Slash and Jeff Beck dueling on stage at a Guns N’ Roses soundcheck in Paris from 1992. Interestingly […]
Now That's An Impressive RAQ
If the goal of a band on any given night in any given city is to both put on a kickass show for its veteran fans and leave the first-time newbs with an impression that the music’s worth delving into further, then RAQ‘s got our permission to hang a “Mission Accomplished” banner following Friday’s extravanganza.
Vermont’s second most famous quartet played a bona fide house party at Brooklyn’s Club Exit this weekend. The evening’s promoters (Slanted View Productions) swept out the typical Eastern European clientele and transformed the venue into a double entendre-laced “On The L” party, a psychedlic playland deep inside the heart of the eerily quiet Polish neighborhood of Greenpoint.
We walked in just before 9 pm, and it instantly became clear this was not going to be a typical rock show. From the hundreds of bulging pupils (is everyone here that runaway bride chick from Atlanta?) to the enormous Borat-speaking bouncers to the obnoxiously loud house music blasting through PA system, we sure weren’t at The Wetlands anymore. Shit, the silly hot bartenders alone made the show better than any jamband concert in recent memory…
Monday's Hors d'Oeuvres
Thanksgiving’s over, and I’m pretty excited for a full week of work. Okay, not really, so let’s all pretend its not Monday. Check out these links to keep you busy: King Crimson has started to sell shows from their archives — thanks to Clownshoes for pointing out this great show from 1982, which is FREE! Original Black Sabbath […]