Camp Bisco Final
The experience of Camp Bisco began to put us into a trance, and the music surely did not help. The refreshing meditation from the gong two days earlier had left me somewhere between my journey from stage to stage. At this point, the mud had deepened due to the constant traffic, and I had lost my sandals in the quagmire. Yet the promise of discovering new music fueled me through the pain of my infected foot as we walked toward the sound of BLVD.





As we settled in front of the stage, the deceptively sparse crowd hid the number of the attendees; however, it made catching the vibe of the band much easier without the constant nudging of elbows. BLVD’s electronic, hip-hop, jam band mix was presented in an uplifting manner, but the songs were terse. BLVD has created a jam band for people with short attention spans, imagine AC-DC meets hip-hop and jam bands





Next, we went to the tent stage to see Synwave. They fused a jazz influenced jam band vibe with funk. The guitarist borrowed a Frampton-like sound that took me back to my adolescent years. At this point, the tent began to take on the appearance of a beach just after high tide, and the stinging of my foot forced me away.
Telepath presented a grave issue for me, every song was completely different. They changed from a reggae sound to an Indian influenced sound. The Indian song was something that I could hear at a hookah bar and not even consider the possibility that it wasn’t from India. Afterward, Telepath shifted to a rock sound, I left immediately before I had to pull deeper from the abyss of my music references.





Heading towards the hill stage, I noticed the calluses on my feet had finally hardened to the point where I could walk without looking like Igor. I arrived at the hill stage and was dreading sitting six feet away from the speakers again. My dread was met with Indobox’s jazz influenced disco, jam band sound. I know I have said, “Jam band and jazz what seems like a thousand times, but I promise all these bands sounded different. Indobox provided the crowd with a certain Postal Service-esque quality. The upbeat fusion of Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” and the influences listed above created a happy enjoyable sound.





Delving deeper into the wide world of Camp Bisco day three, we heard of an artist that holds the world record for the most beats per minute and were directed towards the hill stage. Here K.J. Saka introduced himself and said, “I am doing an East vs. West sound.” I was confused; did he mean East coast vs. West Coast or Western civilization vs. Eastern? I have no idea, but it was awesome. K.J. Saka mixed a set while drumming through the while session. Saka definitely was one of the more original acts, but what drew me to him was something a friend had once said to me, “You can tell if a drummer is great if he can make his drumming enjoyable to listen to without the rest of the band.” K.J. Saka accomplished just that.
Following D.J. Saka was a drum and bass band, Biodiesel. They began with a tribute set to Michael Jackson, mixing “Smooth Criminal”, “Billie Jean”, and other hits. They ended the set with, “In loving memory of Jacko”, at this moment a drizzle of rain fell from the sky. Afterwards, Biodiesel brought out K.J. Saka and a keyboardist again. This resulted in a two drummer set and created a freestyle collaboration lead by Saka. The keyboardist crazed the crowd as an impromptu drum-off developed between Biodiesel and D.J. Saka.
Having momentarily confused Break Science with STS9 from a distance, I was turned off. Yes, it is good to sound like a band as acclaimed as STS9; however, doing almost the same thing and not being distinguishable is a turn off to me.
Finally getting to see STS9 on the main stage, I noticed some significant differences. The daytime set of STS9 was a much chiller event; I believe the Indian Lookout Country Club made everyone zombie-vampires during Camp Bisco. The sun subdued the crowd, yet just about everyone was there. Creating a stark contrast to the environment, the LED screens were on. The images were pixelated pictures of solar winds and the magnetic field of the Mother Earth. I expected to see some hints of drug use during the show, but a whole row of people with pacifiers in their mouths was more than I expected for daytime hours.





Haitian…some people may like them, but I didn’t. I heard someone put it best,”The tracks we did hear sounded like they could be on an infomercial.”
We took a short walk to the tent stage and found Kill the Music. Everyone in the tent loved the sound; it had a crazy circus feel that you would hear at a basketball game to pump up the crowd.
James Murphy and Pat Mahoney entered into the blur that has become Camp Bisco on the main stage. The duo making up LCD Soundsystem, shuffled through an endless amount of records to keep the crowd pumped. Following The Disco Biscuits is a daunting task for any act, however, LCD Soundsystem handled the pressure by amping the crowd even more for the next Disco Biscuits set.








Yet again, I have transgressed against Father Time to present a complete, coherent experience as opposed to a jigsaw puzzle of fleeting moments that must be pieced together. I can’t admit that I was infatuated with the Disco Biscuits the first time I saw them. However, the Disco Biscuits were a building tide, with every performance playing harder, with more feeling and more intensity. Witnessing the two final sets of the Disco Biscuits from backstage gave me a new appreciation for what ten thousand people look like. Watching the explosion of colors called a “light show” playing across the crowd is how I would imagine being in the middle of the friendliest pyrotechnic accident would be like. Yet, I am digressing, realizing that the Disco Biscuits have entered their second decade of performing, I see that I am looking at the grandfather of electronic jam bands. Describing the Disco Biscuits sound would be similar to explaining every facial detail of all of your relatives and then ending with, “But we all look like Grandpa!”





Finally, Camp Bisco was coming to a close, except for one more set of shows, the DFA Disco Disco Tent. The organizers had transformed the tent stage into a European style “diskoteka”, complete with dancing stage girls and pillars of multi-colored lights. Usually I am supposed to write about the specific bands’ sets and explain their influences and the experiences I observe; however, I have to forsake my usual path to explain the significance of these sets. Holy Ghost and Special Disco Version both had great shows but their sets showed something to me, disco is not dead. To see the crowd go wild while the electronic “whomp whomp” played under disco influenced sounds is something else. To see people enjoying the music that dominated my life before I wrestled control of the radio from my mother gave me a feeling of nostalgia. People say that our generation’s music is dying, this is not true. People have to search beyond the scope of the radio to find our generation’s musical contributions to the ages.

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