The Biscuits are coming! The Biscuits are coming! One if by land, two if by sea! Three if by spaceship! Well, hide the women and children and hang three lanterns in the Old North…the Disco Biscuits are in Boston. Oh boy, this was a doozie…
The night before the show, lead guitarist Barber broke his wrist. The official band statement posted on the will-call window said that he fell backstage at the show the night before, and he’s out for 3-4 weeks. But get this…the letter went on to state that the band is refunding everyone’s tickets 100%. Wow. Everyone should tip their crooked hat to the band. What a great call. One would figure that the band had two options: either cancel the show and refund everyone’s money, or patch together a show and keep the money. But to go through with the show AND give it to everyone for free? That’s as good as it gets right there. With a sold out show at $25 per ticket, that’s $25,000 coming straight out of the Biscuit bank account. You know the House of Blues isn’t going to take a hit because some guy in some band hurt himself. HOB is still getting theirs. Way to go, Bisco; that’s how it’s done!
Things got even better. The three remaining band members came out and started the show “Driscuit” style with just drums, bass, and keys. Why the heck not? I’m not a Barber hater by any means, but you don’t need guitar to throw down an earth-shaking drum 'n bass rinseout. Just ask The New Deal. So they came out and crushed a 15-minute jungle jam that almost justified the price of the ticket on its own (had it not already been refunded). It’s funny, there are a myriad of examples in sports where teams actually play better in the short term when the star player gets hurt, because everyone else really has to focus. In the long term you need your best guys to win, but for a couple of games, teams often do well due to the heightened focus of everyone who’s left. I believe that The Disco Biscuits experienced that tonight. After a great opener, they trotted out a guitar player who they scraped up that afternoon. He wasn’t fantastic, but he wasn’t bad either, and considering that he drove eight hours round trip from Burlington, VT to be there, you gotta give him some love. The jams were still thick and juicy; the place was still bumping. Then they brought out the guitar player from Indobox, the opening band from Boston. Wouldn’t you know it, the guy is a Bisco fan. He’s got a Mars Volta haircut, and was dressed like he’s in Weezer. This might work out. He took the stage, and within ten seconds he was singing the lead vocals on "Helicopters"! Look out below! Another great jam ensued and off we went to setbreak to a thunderous ovation. Show: SAVED!
Or so we thought.
45 minutes into setbreak, they turned the lights on and killed the PA music. But nothing happened. Everyone continued their normal conversations, but I got the distinct feeling that something very fishy was going down. Another ten minutes went by like this, and the setbreak was just short of an hour long.
Then it happened.
A HOB employee came out and announced that the show was canceled due to “technical difficulties.” The entire band and even the two guest guitarists were on the side of the stage in what appeared to be heated discussion with some HOB staff. Brownie looked pissed. This did not appear to be the band’s call. They had gone all-out to pull off this show, even recruiting guitarists to drive four hours to the show on six hours' notice. If the HOB pulled the plug, the question is why. They had been kicking people out left and right all night - not too unusual for this venue at any show, and not unusual for a Bisco show where there’s a lot of enforcement. The place was definitely crowded but was also noticeably short for a sold out show. My best guess is that they just got sick of it. Someone at HOB with the power to do so probably just figured, “Screw this show…these kids are out of control, they’re too spun to buy drinks, the band’s guitar player isn’t even here, it was a free show anyway…let’s pull the plug.” Yes, a few idiots threw drinks at the stage, which only risked damaging the band’s equipment. No, it was not a full scale riot. Brownie came out and diffused the situation quickly. I do not consider the drink-throwing to be a Bisco fan problem. I don’t think there’s any show on earth you could cancel at setbreak without a couple of morons throwing drinks. Maybe Yanni. Aside from that, there’s gonna be morons at any show.
In the end, money talks. This is probably why HOB canceled the show. It is also why Bisco came out on top tonight. Despite the odds being stacked against them, they kept the show on, gave everyone their money back before the show even started, and then somehow delivered an excellent set. Huge props to the band. And with the exception of a couple of drink-throwing morons, props to the fans as well for giving the show a chance and getting down hard in the face of adversity. I’m glad I was there. It was well worth the $0 it cost me. I’ll save getting mad until the next time a Bisco show ends before midnight… which will hopefully never happen again.
