The Disco Biscuits | Ogden Theater | 5/26/11 | Review

Article Contributed by Philip Emma | Published on Monday, May 30, 2011

The time is finally here.  The Disco Biscuits are back in Colorado to start the summer off once again.  On Thursday night fans traveled from all over the country to the Ogden Theater in Denver for the first of two shows in the city leading up to Bisco Inferno, a day (or evening) festival at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO on Saturday.  The band always seems to have a good time playing at the Ogden and this was no exception.

The Biscuits took the stage and kicked off the run with the slowly-building intro to The Very Moon.  The crowd stood by and watched as the band patiently blended the sparse textures of sound into the song before launching into the danceable funk section.  The band always enjoys teasing songs during their jams which keeps those who are knowledgeable of their extensive song repertoire guessing what will come next.  Sticking with tradition, the boys bounced around their catalog before landing on Voices Insane.  This dark-toned song follows The Very Moon in the Hot Air Balloon Rock Opera, written by guitarist Jon “The Barber” Gutwillig.  The jam in this song progressed into Shem-Rah Boo, but the song was left unfinished as the band decided to return to Voices Insane after a subtle tease of Confrontation.

Next came Neck Romancer, a new song written by keyboardist Aron Magner that will be featured on their upcoming studio album, Otherwise Law Abiding Citizens.  The set ended with The Overture, a composed classical-sounding song with a short but sweet drum and bass groove in the middle.

The highlight of the second set (and the show) was the Vassillios >Orch Theme > Tricycle > Mr. Don segment.  Clocking in at over an hour, the non-stop series of songs features a lot of energy and interesting improvisation, riddled with teases of course.  The bass line from Marc Brownstein in the jam out of Vassillios vaguely suggested they may be on their way into an inverted version of And The Ladies Were The Rest Of The Night, yet the song was never played.  On their way into Orch Theme, the band began to ease into the groove of the song, only to go off and explore new territory, periodically coming back to it until finally settling into the hook.

Shelby Rose was a nice stand-alone song to end the set.  The Disco Biscuits are more known for the lengthy improvisational sections of their songs rather than a short song that would fit the requirements for an encore song.  Lasting over 10 minutes, Mulberry's Dream was a great way to close the show with a bang.

With many heavy-hitting songs left unplayed, this show was a great warm-up to a big weekend of Disco Biscuits music.  It left the fans hungry for more and excited to see what surprises are in store for them.

Stay tuned for Grateful Web's review of Bisco Inferno -- however, to tied you over, here are some photos from Bisco Inferno.

The Disco Biscuits will be back in Colorado to headline EMU Festival, the Eco Music Festival in Snowmass Village, CO on July 2nd." For more information on EMU Festival, please contact Julie Dunn: [email protected].

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5/26/2011

I The Very Moon > Voices Insane > Shem-Rah Boo 1 > Voices Insane,
Neck Romancer, The Overture

II Park Ave., Vassillios > Orch Theme > Tricycle > Mr. Don, Shelby Rose

E: Mulberry's Dream