Camp Bisco - August 17th, 2007 - Mariaville, New York

Camp Bisco VI
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.

Backstage with Luke and Jesse Stocker from Digital Frontier







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.

(above) Can you find Aron Magner in this picture?







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)

Camp Bisco - August 16th, 2007 - Mariaville, New York

Camp Bisco VI
August 16th, 2007
Mariaville, New York
Indian Lookout Country Club

Please click on photos for enlargements.
All photographs © 2007 Jason Kaczorowski


We flew into New York with as much gear as our weight restrictions would permit and I had my old friend from the days of catching Phish shows named Monsta pick us up at JFK airport. After a 6am flight, a 3 hour drive and a quick stop for last minute food and supplies, we finally rolled into Mariaville around 2:30 in the afternoon and set up camp just in time to hear the first act opening on the main stage just a few hundred feet away from our VIP campsite.

Our tent was the envy of everyone in our immediate vicinity. After recently traveling to the 10,000 Lakes Music Festival in Minnesota and staying aboard a 27 foot R.V., I wanted to camp in luxury and not stumble around our old, narrow tent with low ceilings. We settled on a new 15'X15' tent with closet organization, cup holders, an overhead loft for extra storage, dual-entry doors and enough room to inflate a queen size air mattress, yet still position a few chairs inside, walk around and even change clothes without feeling too constricted. The only thing we regretted not bringing was heavier blankets as the weather got down into the low 40’s throughout the cold, rainy weekend. Thankfully a local vendor had Guatemalan blankets for sale and we quickly snapped up two to keep ourselves warm during the frigid mornings.

Caveman, the continuously evolving live experience combining elements of interplanetary rock, psycho-blues and kamikaze jazz, officially opened Camp Bisco 6, Thursday, August 16th, with their exciting performance from 5:45-6:30. Shortly following, Chicago's own Umphrey's McGee rode the storm that blew in during the beginning of their set that lasted from 7pm until nearly 9. Festival namesakes The Disco Biscuits performed an amazing set from 9:15 until 10:45 and Israeli trance band Infected Mushroom kept the party going and the audience pumped up until the early morning hours on the main stage.



















The Disco Biscuits set featured "Bernstein And Chasnoff", "Boom Shanker" into "The Great Abyss" and an epic, set-closing musical journey floating aboard the "Hot Air Balloon".

10,000 Lakes Festival - Sunday, July 22nd, 2007

10,000 Lakes Festival - Lake Sallie Crew
(L-R) Me, Charity, Connor, Lor, Pollock, D, Grandma

Please click on photos for enlargements.
All photographs © 2007 Jason Kaczorowski




The PollockPrints tent is barren and the campgrounds are becoming hastily deserted. The sound of sleeping bags being zipped up blends with the tires of golf carts sputtering down dirt roads performing their ritual of last rites over the festival grounds. Some wait patiently for the only remaining port-o-john with toilet paper. Others begin to canvas the remaining open vendor booths searching for anyone still selling cigarettes or caffeinated products.


Lor and A.J. drive by one last time in their golf carts to wish us well on our journey back to Chicago. After exchanging contact information and promising to make this escapade an annual adventure, the personnel still realizes they’re on duty as the radio distress calls that seem to never vanish continue to summon the fatigued staff. For many of them, they have been here at the Soo Pass Ranch for days prior to the festival's opening, preparing for this week and some will continue on for another week of the same as Detroit Lakes 3-day Country Music “WE Fest” promises to bring beer drinking, girlfriend stealing, fist fighting fun to the following weekend. These tireless troupers will take inventory over the next few days and have their remaining products available on their website for fans that unfortunately never had an opportunity to stop by a merchandise booth over the demanding four day festival.


As Connor and Charity load the remaining skeletal framing of the SlapHappy Drums sign into their trailer for the long drive back to Oregon, Pollock scribes his reminder to the couple to “Keep On Making Sh*t”. His prompt is provided subsequent to his own baptismal and rebirth this week as I observe a revitalized glow of renewal and regeneration that has washed over him. This isn’t the last festival Pollock will be showcasing at and you can bet I’ll be on board next time to document the exploits again.

In another times forgotten space

Your eyes looked from your mothers face

Wallflower seed on the sand and stone

May the four winds blow you safely home

10,000 Lakes Festival - Saturday, July 21st, 2007

Please click on photos for enlargements.
All photographs © 2007 Jason Kaczorowski


It’s the end of an extensive, exciting week and Pollock returns one last time to his booth to sign and number his on-site printed edition. There is a light breeze entering from the rear of the tent but there’s an eerie silence compared with the past few days’ poster pandemonium. Determined, Pollock puts pen to paper dutifully authorizing each piece. Previously displayed artwork is packed away and all that remains are stomped out cigarette butts, craft paper strewn about a table and a muslin backdrop dividing the tent with safety pins and binder clips still affixed to it. Voices can be heard from the merchandise booth next door as the occasional consumer inquires regarding the availability of the on-site poster being unknowingly autographed behind the thin white plastic wall to their left.

The “Prince of Prints” (as he’s been affectionately dubbed this week by “Lor”, another local shakedown street coordinator and general merchandising manager) holds reign over the pen, occasionally pausing to flick a dead mosquito dried in the still slightly damp oil-based ink as the stack slowly continues to dwindle.





Jason Kaczorowski (far right) working
on rolling posters for distribution with
the Lake Sallie General Store crew.

Photo by Jim Pollock (above)


There’s still so much to see and do and it feels like we’re just now – on the last day of the festival – beginning to stretch our legs.


We proceed to the VIP tent and realize they’ve been offering up complimentary food and beer all weekend. Where’ve we been? Before departing the VIP tent, we gulp down a couple beers while enjoying the live backstage entertainment.
I’ve been fascinated by the ice cream truck rumored to have been slinging 2,000 bars of free ice cream backstage all week. Do you know the Ice Cream Man? Check out the site http://www.icecreamman.com/ for his inside scoop.

The weekend’s headliners were just plugging in on the main stage and the anticipating initial roar of the crowd was an early indication what an amazing night of music we were in for.

I’m photographing approximately 5 feet from former founding Grateful Dead member Bob Weir and his band Ratdog as he opens the evening with a wailing jam into “Help on the Way > Slipknot! > Liberty” and on into “She Says” before the pit is cleared and we are ushered away from the stage. I don’t recall ever pulling the camera away from my face aside from reloading memory cards or quickly changing lenses. The swell of the crowd meshes with the movement of the music as I pack my gear and am beckoned onto the VIP tent’s massage tables. The long weekend has taken its toll on my lower back transporting gear around constantly. I am soon passed out, face down on a table being kneaded and worked as Weir and band perform “Tennessee Jed > Cassidy > Lazy River Road”. Getting a massage while listening to Grateful Dead tunes being performed live only a few hundred feet away is an experience I can’t highly recommend enough. Simply as relaxed as I could’ve become, I am the last client of the evening and me and my therapist are telling tales from our hometown on a couch in the VIP lounge. She’s from Lawrence, Kansas – home to the Wakarusa Music Festival. She tells me about a time when she was giving Phish’s Mike Gordon a massage but continued to call him by the wrong name throughout the treatment. I promise to keep in touch for another massage if we cross paths in Kansas next year.

The first set comes to a close with a “Watchtower” tease out of “Lazy River” and into “Bird Song” which melds into a “Big Railroad Blues” which featured Warren Haynes on guitar & vocals.



The second stomped in with “Mexicali Blues” followed by “A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall”. “Milestones” proceeded into “Lady with a Fan” on into a presumed “Terrapin”. “Come Together” went back into a “Bird Song” reprise then on into a “Cassidy” reprise followed by a set closing, crowd pleasing “One More Saturday Night” all also featuring Keller Williams on guitar & vocals. With an encore showcasing “Slipknot!” again into “Franklin's Tower”, by the time the American flag came waving on stage during “U.S. Blues”, the only thing left to do was blow up the sky with fireworks and start gearing up for next year’s 6th annual 10,000 Lakes Festival.