Disco Biscuits Welcome the New Year in Fire and Ice

Photos by Tara Gracer Foto

On Tuesday, Dec. 31, Disco Biscuits returned to their hometown stage in Philadelphia to welcome the New Year with friends, family, and the local fan base. 

After a series of Fillmore warm-ups that began in Silver Spring, Md., Dec. 27-28, the band made its way to The City of Brotherly Love for a precursor to the main event, which yielded the first “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” since 2022. 

For the formal New Year’s Eve presentation, Disco Biscuits predetermined a motif of fire and ice, which was evoked lyrical, with playful costumes, Lighting Director Herm Schneider’s zealous work, and a series of thematic samples that supported the opposing forces of hot and cold. 

Dressed in flame-inspired matching jumpsuits, the band, Marc Brownstein, Jon Gutwillig, Allen Aucoin, and Magner, evoked the first semblance of fire lines, “Campfire outside against the cold,” a la set opener “Rockafella.” Next, the band conjured a fire-breathing dragon while delivering a techno-infused “Spaga,” featuring a sample of Ellie Goulding’s “Burn.” Pausing before the arrival of “Above the Waves” (“Corrinado swam like hell on fire”), continued the remainder of set one with amble force and precision by adding an inverted rendition of “ Fire Will Exchange” and looping back to “Above the Waves.”

With the arrival of the second set, the flames had subsided, and January’s nearing chill supported the thematic shift from fire into ice. Bisco changed its wear to ice-toned jumpsuits, looking like workwear-clad Jack Frost, by the time “Tourists (Rocket Ship)” opened the frame, with features twists into Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby.” 

A series of frozen mentions supported the build to the night’s climax, initiated during a techno display of the Game of Thrones theme, known as “A Song of Fire & Ice,” before a debut original. “Philly Fire and Ice” served as a first-time play, costume fit for the occasion at hand, given its lyrics: 

Philly have a Happy New Year

2024 was just the tip of the spear 

For the love of the game 

Come on and pop the champagne, oh yeah 

Philly have a happy new year 

The band is on fire and our mission is clear

We got ice in our veins 

Come on and pop the champagne, oh yeah

The song rang out as the clock struck midnight and met a cascade of falling streamers and traditional offerings of “Helicopters” with “Happy New Year” lyrics. Bisco’s third and final set produced a series of classics, beckoning to their early work and saving space for newer material while evoking the fire and ice theme. 

With 2024 a memory, Bisco will waste little time before returning to the road in anticipation of their West Coast tour, which picks up on Jan. 16 at Seattle’s The Showbox. Tickets and additional information can be found at www.discobiscuits.com. 

For those who missed the band’s NYE performance, concert streams are available via nugs.net. 

Disco Biscuits

The Fillmore – Philadelphia

Dec. 31, 2024

Set I: Rockafella → Spaga[2], Above the Waves → Fire Will Exchange (inverted) → Above the Waves

Set II: Tourists (Rocket Ship)[3] → Floes[4] → Freeze[5] → Kamaole Sands (inverted) → Game of Thrones Theme[6] → Philly Fire and Ice[7], Helicopters[8]

Set III: Sister Judy’s Soul Shack[9] → The Deal → Dino Baby → Run Like Hell[10] → Sister Judy’s Soul Shack

Notes:

[1] Fire & Ice themed show

[2] Techno version; with “Burn” (Ellie Goulding) samples

[3] with “Ice Ice Baby” (Vanilla Ice) samples

[4] with “Tweezer” (Phish)

[5] Unfinished; with “Cold as Ice” (Foreigner) samples

[6] FTP

[7] FTP; with New Year’s Countdown

[8] with “Happy New Year” lyrics

[9] with “Fire” (Jimi Hendrix) samples

[10] Unfinished