A few years ago I was writing a story about DJs who were doing jam band-focused radio shows. A Los Angeles public radio DJ named Barry Smolin predicted the jam scene would merge with the rave/techno scene, and the Disco Biscuits were in the forefront of this movement.

In 2003 I got a copy of the Disco Biscuits' appearance on the Dunhams' radio show from 1999. When I first acquired this I wasn't too impressed, though the Disco Biscuits were all the rage in the jam band scene at the time. Recently I recalled the guitarist having a really good phaser sound, so I dug this CD out and listened again. It was one of those kinds of things where at the time it wasn't so impressive, but against the current canvas it suddenly sounded brilliant.

So I looked up the Disco Biscuits' schedule and saw they were going to be in Atlanta very soon with Umphrey's McGee, a band Scott raves about and that I've seen a couple of times. I decided I hadn't gotten out in awhile and therefore handed over the $10 for parking and $35 for the ticket without balking.

I'm back on my initial assessment of the Disco Biscuits: that was lame. It sounded like you either could've arrived at 5:30, as I did, or 6:30, or 7:30, and you would've had the same experience. I really couldn't tell that they changed songs more than once or twice in that entire time, it was just one long techno "thump, thump, thump." It sounded like the kind of music they would play while bands set up, but this was the actual show. You could produce the same thing with a computer and a DJ; I don't know why they have four or five guys in the band to increase their overhead.

Then Umphrey's McGee came on. Umphrey's McGee is clearly a bit hotter than the Disco Biscuits now because the crowd surged forward when they took the stage. Their first five minutes proved what everyone knows but denies: everybody loves metal. They played a riff similar to Metallica's "Battery" that then went into something that sounded like Iron Maiden. The crowd went wild, and one guy was skipping all around the music park leaping in the air and air guitaring. They had `em by the balls! And then...they let go! Yep, then they shifted tempo and energy level, in effect saying, "Ah, folks, we were playing that Metallica-type stuff tongue-in-cheek! We all know that's passe! Here's some white guy techno-funk!," and downshifted into something pretty typically jam-bandy. Immediately I noticed people went back to their conversations. Eventually they began producing the same "thump, thump, thump" the Disco Biscuits had been doing. The biggest applause of the night was when the guy played a bit of Eddie Van Halen's "Eruption" solo, proving for the second time in the evening everybody loves metal (no, third. They also played a few bars of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" and got a big reaction).

Though the tunes weren't quite up my alley it was still nice to be in the sun in a field with the crowd. Since there was no visual display onstage that compelled my attention I decided to hang out by the Miller Lite truck being a perv. There was some young black chick pouring beers in a midriff-baring tank top and short-shorts. Her bellybutton, ass and legs blew away every other girl there, so I decided to discretely get eye fulls of that. It was funny to find I wasn't the only honky looking her over because another guy came up and was obviously introducing himself and shaking her hand; as soon as he got out of earshot she and the other girls at the table blew up laughing. Then another musclehead-type mook showed up and went on and on at her. I wanted to turn the band down and roll a microphone over there so I could hear what magic words this guy thought he was going to say that would make her leap upon his pole. "Hey, baby, me and my friends here are known as the Stockbridge Party Cru! C`mon and party with us!" At first there was even some touching going on and I thought he might've actually been getting somewhere, but she sent him packing. Twenty minutes later he returned for another round! Two guys in "staff" t-shirts with walkie-talkies were hovering nearby but never intervened. The guy finally got lost a second time, and I took some pleasure in knowing he would go home with to wank alone. I bought $100 worth of bottled water from her before the day was over, by the way.

Also curious, a trio of guys were randomly slapping each other near me. They were actually laughing away about it as they smacked each other in a circle. I was bracing for the moment when they stopped laughing and I found myself in a whirlwind brawl, and passersby were even saying, "Hey, you guys! Stop that!" That was weird.

Around the time the musclehead realized he wasn't going to get any ebony hooch they cut off the beer. The Umphrey's McGee fans were throwing glow sticks 100 mph in the air and I figured this must be the finale, so I beat the crowd to the parking lot. Though I'm critiquing the music don't get me wrong, it was still fun. Might've been better with Humble Pie on the stage, though.

Then I went home and prepared for a day of work which also turned out to be quite pleasurable, which I'll tell you about in another installment.