Disco Biscuits at Irving Plaza

Jon Gutwillig

Disco Biscuits started in 1995 on a college campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where guitarist Jon "The Barber" Gutwillig and bassist Marc Brownstein were jamming. Aron Magner joined the college and then joined the band as its keyboardist. The three began playing fraternity parties and other social events, combining jazz jams with electronic dance music into what fans later would call "trance fusion." They performed under various names including  Party Tent. Since 2005, Disco Biscuits has consisted of Gutwillig, Brownstein, Magner and drummer Allen Aucoin. Disco Biscuits' most recent studio album is 2011's Otherwise Law Abiding Citizens.

With a three-night run in New York City (two nights at Irving Plaza, one night at the Ford Amphitheater), the band promised entirely different sets. Tonight, the middle performance, Disco Biscuits started with "Grass Is Green" and wove into several other songs, playing more than three hours (with intermission) before concluding with an encore of "The City." The set picked up "Spacebirdmatingcall" where it left off in a jam the previous night and performed a new song, "The Champions," for the first time. Otherwise, it was typical Biscuits fare, largely instrumental dance jams led by psychedelic guitar work and chiming synthesizers. Throughout, there was a familiar over-arching sameness, and yet the interplay of cascading instruments kept the jams from ever getting too repetitious. Fresh and very much alive at every moment on stage, this was yet another brilliant set by Disco Biscuits that never was before and never will be again.

Visit Disco Biscuits at www.discobiscuits.com.