Review: Disco Biscuits & UV Hippo 10.28.09

Jes, Greg, and I decided to drive down to Kalamazoo, MI for the recent Disco Biscuits show and Ultraviolet Hippopotamus after-show. We arrived in Kzoo, and got in. I had to wait a little for my friend to show up with my ticket, so Jes and I waited outside. As we waited we watched 3 people get kicked out, a couple people freaking out about it, others seemed happy to not be going to jail. We already knew this was going to be rowdy. The Disco Biscuits played the Kalamazoo State Theater, a beautiful theater with what I would say to have pretty good acoustics. The crowd, was the usual bisco crowd, spun out kids everywhere, everyone a total mess, security roaming around everywhere, kicking kids out who were zonked out on chairs, running through the aisle chasing people. It was seriously out of hand. At one point we noticed a dreaddy pregnant lady. I had to take a break from the crowd at that point.

Despite the sheer ridiculousness of the crowd, the show for the most part was really good. I am not the biggest Bisco fan, but they threw down. The jams were well executed and the peaks were to the utmost Bisco style. The light show was awesome, and had some great moments, but I felt there was too much strobbing and spinning lights everywhere to focus on the music. I had to sit down for most of the show. As for the tunes, they played really well, for Bisco. Overall I would give it a 4/5 for a Disco Biscuits show. But for my overall taste; I felt some musicianship was lacking in certain areas. The drummer absolutely beasted it as did bro on the guitar. The bassist laid it down when he was actually playing the bass, but my only real problem was the keyboardist. He continually moved around his body to the beat while playing literally two notes. Ive never seen a keyboardist doing so much on stage, movement wise, and doing absolutely nothing keyboard wise. He had his tiny moments but overall it was simplistic and boring keyboard playing. He is much better than that and could lay down some fat licks in between his chord playing if he really wanted to, hes absolutely capable.

Rating: 3.5/5 for me... for a Disco Biscuits show 4/5


Ultraviolet Hippopotamus

After leaving the Bisco show, we headed over to UV Hippo. These guys can throw down, I saw these guys two years ago and had fun but wasnt that impressed. Recently, earlier this year, I saw them again for the first time in a while. I was blown the fuck away. These guys can JAM. They are a progressive style rock band. They keyboardist is absolutely insane, mooging out real hard and making it real spacey. Hes got a nasty tone on the keys as well, the kind that makes you clinch your jaw and grind your teeth (in a good way). He is a great player all around. The two guitarist are awesome. They communicate so well during the jam, doing great trade offs of call and response, each of them throwing down riffs that were mindblowingly slick and amazingly non-repetitive. The drummer is great and versatile, raging his styles from rock, to jazz, to bluegrass, to trance, to space. The percussionist lays down some good shit as well. The bassist also lays down some fat licks that brings it all together. These guys are awesome, one of the best bands in Michigan in my opinion. The Bisco after party was absolutely awesome. They really threw down. They played all their hits, and they nailed each one of them. They had a nice little light show that went along with their music perfectly. A number of crowd favorites/ super crunchy tunes were played and all of Papa Petes was getting down. They definitely got their name out there the other night, there being a lot of biscuit fans who didnt know who they were. All in all they put on a spectacular show and I see nothing but good things for this band.

Rating: 4.5/5

UV Hippo's Whunurth Late Night Set!

-Mr. n00b