Friday, August 17th, 2007
Mariaville, New York
Indian Lookout Country Club
Please click on photos for enlargements.
All photographs © 2007 Jason Kaczorowski
Camp Bisco security was run by the Indian Lookout Country Club bikers… the friendliest, kindest group of bikers I have ever met! These bikers were also some of the toughest, hardest working individuals I have ever seen. Case in point, the guy I shot a photo of above in the neck brace (with the head on a stick in a neck brace) was picking up heavy bags of trash all weekend and managing to maintain a smile while dealing with the pain from his unfortunate injury. These bikers were cool enough to issue an open letter of assurance to Disco Biscuits fans on their website prior to the event cautioning, “We are going to proceed under the belief that you are coming here for a good time with mutual respect all around. We trust you will return the respect.” The letter also went on to note …
“We understand that the band and their followers have had difficulties in finding a venue that will accept their unique music and fan base more than one time. We bikers have also had that all-too-familiar experience of being looked at with fear and suspicion by non-bikers. In fact, we share much common ground with the music scene. Bikers can rock, too. And we both share the desire for freedom to live life our way. The ILCC was built for bikers, by bikers, to secure that freedom for ourselves. On our little piece of the planet it’s “Our World, Our Way.”
Kudos to the hard-working staff of the ILCC for keeping the peace and running a tight ship.
Friday featured so much exciting entertainment. Unfortunately I woke from my tent at the break of sunrise coughing uncontrollably from presumably the same flu symptoms that plagued me prior to leaving Chicago. Before coming to Camp, I had been working 12 hour days, 7 days straight for weeks and my body had eventually given out… camping outdoors in cold, upstate New York at a three night/four day, non-stop jamband/electronic/dance/rave music festival was probably not the best way to start feeling physically better. Psychologically however, I was feeling in top form and ready to do battle between my lenses and the performers on stage.
Friday afternoon opened the main stage with the Adam Deitch Project followed by King Britt. I was anxious to hear King Britt as I had spent time Thursday night during the rain talking with him in the VIP lounge about producing the new Disco Biscuits album along with his guest appearance on select choice tracks. Britt was getting the crowd pumped just as Aron Magner from the Disco Biscuits joined King on stage for an impromptu collaboration. Mixing Radiohead tracks to synthesized break-beats as Magner slapped his keyboard and bent notes in the background, the crowd loved the energy and couldn’t get enough. Due to Simon Posford (aka Hallucinogen) delayed arrival, “The New Originals” (Feat: Marc Brownstein, Aron Magner, Zach Velmer & Posford) were unable to perform.
Soon word swept the grounds that the Disco Biscuits were about to execute a spontaneous set on the main stage prior to Slick Rick’s 5pm performance. Fans poured into the main concert field as the Disco Biscuits performed a segue filled set featuring “Glastonbury” into ‘Basis For A Day” into “Gangster” into “Shem-Rah Boo” back into “Basis For A Day”, rounding out with “Rockafella”.
I took off midway through the Disco Biscuits set to head over to the second stage and catch Toronto's evil super group Holy Fuck, the “chaotic live celebration of lo-fi noise and weirdo casio-driven rock”. Their first L.P. was recorded live in the studio using keyboards, an old 35mm film sequencer and other ‘old school’ electronic instruments. H.F. killed it, leaving fans on the second stage staggering away, still mesmerized in their wake.
East Coast hip hop performer Slick Rick (Richard Walters), aka “The Ruler”, was up to his old tricks that made him famous in the 80’s (circa Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew) such as "La Di Da Di", "The Show", “Mona Lisa “, “Children's Story” and "All the Way Down". Rumors suggested that Rick planned to release a new album, "The Adventure Continues," in 2007. However, in a recent magazine interview, he denied the claim. Rick is supposedly "waiting for a market to open up for a [more] mature audience” yet when performing on stage at Camp Bisco, he called out for the audience to weigh in on what they perferred more, his Old School classic raps or New School jams which were gauged by his D.J. who spun both based on audience applause. The Old School seemed to win out which can only mean we should expect a new album to be released soon.
Sound Tribe Sector 9, the 5-piece electronic jam band fusing live instruments with electronica, performed a P.A. set that drew the biggest audience of the weekend to the second stage. Executing live samples from their laptops as their drummer drilled live beats from his trap set, the crew melted into the amber evening light over their shoulders as day turned into night and again the rain and cold began to set in.
A brief D.J. set preceded Hallucinogen in Dub which played until 8pm before the Disco Biscuits appeared once again for a two set show that went from 9pm until past midnight amid heavy rain and cold temperatures. Gusting winds prompted security to chase fans back 20 feet from the front of the stage in fear the giant banners on each side were acting as sails and lifting the stage, preparing for it to topple on the soaked, shivering audience. Due to the weather, I was forced to leave my camera gear back at camp.
The Disco Biscuits two sets featured:
Set I: Jigsaw Earth> Above The Waves*> Jigsaw Earth, Magellan> Termites**> Magellan
Set II: Rainbow Song> Spacebirdmatingcall, Reactor> Orch Theme***> Reactor
* inverted
** 1st time played
*** with Simon Posford and Zach Velmer (STS9)
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