The Disco Biscuits Spin The Wheel & Welcome Horns

Jamtronica pioneers The Disco Biscuits concluded a four-show New Year’s Run at the PlayStation Theater in New York City with a pair of special shows on Friday and Saturday. Friday saw the quartet perform a “Spin The Wheel” set in which the songs they played were determined by spinning a wheel that featured song titles. On Saturday, the band was joined by The Philly Stray Horns in a first set that also contained an appearance by Blues Brothers imitators.

Keyboardist Aron Magner served as host for the “Spin The Wheel” performance on Friday. The Disco Biscuits busted out “Mario Star Jam” for the first time since 2007 in the first set which foreshadowed the bust outs to come in the second set. Just the fifth “Floes” since 2011 kicked off the “Spin The Wheel” second set. “Lunar Pursuit” came next and led into the return of “Sweating Bullets” after 5+ years. Then it was time for the biggest bust out of the run as the wheel landed on “The Unspoken Rhyme” which was last played April 10, 2001. As Jambands.com pointed out “Rhyme” is an original written by Magner and former sound man Jon Lesser during the “Triscuits” era when bassist Marc Brownstein had parted ways with the band. Another “Mario Star Jam” then gave way to an “Above The Waves” set closer. Fan favorite classic “Munchkin Invasion” served as encore on January 1.

On January 2 tDB were joined by the Philly Stray Horns for the entirety of the first set. The quartet and the horns started the set with a focus on originals including “King Of The World,” “Caterpillar” and “Spy.” An inverted “Confrontation” served as the meat of a “Caterpillar” sandwich. For the end of the set, tDB and the horns were led by Blues Brothers imitators The Blue-ish Brothers for the debuts of Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man” and Solomon Burke’s “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love.”

The second set was all about one of the longest jams in Bisco history as “I-Man” kicked off the closing stanza and sprawled for nearly an hour. “Svengali” > “Astronaut” > the end of “Reactor” put an exclamation point on the second set. One more bust out was part of the encore as one of the earliest tDB originals, “Frog Legs,” returned for the first time in a year and a half and led into a run-closing cover of Pink Floyd’s “Run Like Hell.” Next up for the Disco Biscuits is a three-night run at The Fillmore Philadelphia February 4 – 6.

Setlists

January 1

Set One: Voices Insane-> Mario Star Jam-> Moshi Fameus-> Orch Theme-> Mindless Dribble-> Spraypaint

Set Two: Floes-> Lunar Pursuit-> Sweating Bullets-> Unspoken Rhyme-> Mario Star Jam-> Above the Waves

Encore: Munchkin Invasion

January 2

Set One: King of the World, Caterpillar-> Confrontation (inverted)-> Caterpillar, Spy, Soul Man*, Everybody Needs Someone To Love*

Set Two: I-Man-> Svenghali-> Astronaut-> Reactor (ending)

Encore: Frog Legs-> Run Like Hell

Entire 1st set with Philly Stray Horns

*with The Blue-ish Brothers