JERSEY BISCUITS | NOVEMBER | 2021
Written by Zachary Franck
Photos by Silky Shots
First off, I would like to make it perfectly clear that I haven’t been following the Disco Biscuits or listening to their soundboards with the ferocity of the past. My last show was City Bisco in July. It happened to be my 100th, and they treated me to not one, but two Tractorbeam segments in the second set! I went into this Biscuits experience with no expectations. I knew their return to New Jersey (on the weekend of Thanksgiving nonetheless) would bring out a lot of familiar faces, so I was excited to reconnect with friends I haven’t seen. It was also my first time seeing them indoors since NYE 2019 – the final show at Playstation Theater. As much as I loved seeing the Biscuits at random drive-in’s scattered across the northeast, there’s something a little different about catching them in a club or theater.
I arrived at The Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ on Friday, November 26th fueled by a mixture of adrenaline and anxiety. This was my first two-night Biscuits run totally abstinent of all mind-altering substances. For some of you, that may not mean anything, but for a junkbox like me, it means everything. I was curious to see how I’d enjoy the atmosphere, conscious of the fact I may turn into a grumpy prick at times as I sipped my cranberry club soda and ate a kit-kat bar while many of my friends made their voyage into the digitized sauce once more. But I digress… the Disco Biscuits came out with a rocking Little Lai and set the tone for the run.
I, like many others, don’t go to Biscuits shows to shout back and forth about current events or talk about what we had for lunch today. I go to get lost in the music. Spaga > Cyclone > Spaga captured my attention and brought me to a place of cerebral stimulation that I enjoy residing in at a Biscuits show. The fact that drummer Allen Aucoin can play such mean drum n bass in an N95 mask will never seize to amaze me. As a drummer that easily overheats, it is a bit of a mindfuck, but he’s just built different. Guitarist Jon “Barber” Gutwillig impressed me with his patience and poise on his new Ibanez – he picked his notes and didn’t overplay. It was a treat to witness. Although the band slightly botched the ending of Spaga, the segment is memorable as a whole.
The Nughuffer bustout for Beef’s 420th show was most definitely irie. As Brownstein mentioned in the midst of his spiel about cannabis advocacy, the overall landscape and attitude in the northeast has certainly changed since the last time they played the song on the east coast. It made sense that they paired it with Boomshanker and sat in an extensive dub jam. The standalone Helicopters to close out the second set was another one of my personal highlights from the first night. To be frank, the song just has balls. It always rips and is almost always guaranteed to produce fiery jams.
Overall, I thought the first night was cool, but I was yearning for more. The Biscuits delivered across the board throughout the entirety of Saturday’s show. Although The Wellmont Theater proved to be a boomy room, their crew made some adjustments and had them sounding good. From the first jam out of Strobelights & Martinis, Barber and Magner were galloping through imagined soundscapes of the Western frontier. Melodically, they were locked in and painting as one, sliding into Miracles with ease. Miracles > Bombs > Miracles > Tempest featured the level of thematic conviction that makes me feel okay (not good… okay) with the fact I’ve dedicated so much time and money to this band.
Tasteless dorks can say what they want about Barber, but the man has swagger when he cradles that Gibson with love. When Magner provides him with a layered base to dance on, and Brownie keeps the pocket right there, something special is prone to happen. The jam out of Miracles is a prime example as to why I fell in love with the Disco Biscuits years ago. Three words: dynamics, motifs, textures. All four of them were doing exactly what they needed to do to serve the music and it was momentous. No overplaying. No stepping on toes. It’s not about shoving a bunch of notes down people’s throats. It’s about creating something on the fly as a singular unit that is so captivating, it entrances the crowd through auditory hypnosis. People that don’t know how to keep their mouths shut actually stop yapping for a few minutes (crazy, I know) - that is when you know something special is taking place; that is trance-fusion.
The second set was classic Biscuits. Point blank. Period. No covers. No filler. It felt great to catch a cinematic Magellan of that magnitude – it’s comical and slightly baffling when haters say the Biscuits are just an untz band. The fact that they shocked everyone and busted out Munchkin Invasion (><) for the first time since 2008 solidified how good the show was. Not only were the jams that surrounded it excellent, but it’s why so many of us play the game. Let me explain. Sure, I’ve come off as a Tractorbeam 2.0 hater in the past, but I respect it and actually enjoyed a handful of the segments that they’ve produced. But I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the majority of diehard Biscuits fans follow them for the unpredictability of their live show - ex. Munchkin Invasion (><). So, when they began inserting Tractorbeam segments into every single second set of their live shows, it went against everything that a lot of us have come to love. It’s not about the concept or the execution, it’s just the fact that doing it during the second set of every show takes one of the most magical things about the band away from the fans.
On Saturday night, the Disco Biscuits torched Jersey like the Newark riots of 1967. It felt great to see them play at that level. It felt even better that I was clear-headed and clear-eyed from start to finish and still enjoyed it as much as I did. I may or may not have danced the hardest I’ve ever danced at a Biscuits show – who knows. Regardless, it gave me a chance to see if my love for this music was as pure as I thought it was or if I just loved partying my ass off at shows… well, I’m glad to say it was the former. See everyone in Philly.
