Until a few weeks ago, we were unaware of an event called Camp Bisco, a yearly festival held in upstate New York by the Disco Biscuits, featuring, says an insider, "tents, nitrous oxide, liquid LSD and lots of cars blasting bad DJ mixes from their speakers with the hatchbacks open." It also features multiple sets by the Disco Biscuits and other groups along the dance end of the jam band spectrum. This year, DFA had an entire stage. When we heard this and understood what it meant, we sent a WTF email to Alex Frankel of Holy Ghost! (the left banana), who kindly offered to run down the festival's highs and lows for you, the readers. Some dude in a gong fortress, DFA tour bus tour, Alex in a drug rug and more are after the jump.
The first time Holy Ghost! went to Camp Bisco was in summer 2006 as members of The Juan Maclean. I was playing keys and Nick was playing drums. Unexpectedly, we had a fantastic time that night. Juan rubbed patchouli oil on Nick's drums, introduced me as Nick's boyfriend, and did his best to scare the acid-crazed-hippie-children. We played a terrifying set. Great night.
This year we went sans Juan and DJ'd with James Murphy and Pat Mahoney (Special Disco Version). We had our very own DFA tent and once again had an amazing time. Props to all the kids who danced in the mud. Below is a visual breakdown of the trip.
12-2PM: We met at James' apartment in Brooklyn. He ordered us all delicious breakfast burritos and we listened to records. Eventually the tour bus showed up and Matt Cash gave me a tour:
2PM-6pm: We watched JCVD—awesome movie—and generally got our hang on.
6PM: We almost got stuck under a bridge:
7pm: We arrived:
7-10PM: We walked around in the mud. I saw many strange and typical things:
10PM: We set up these gigantic light boxes that Marcus ( Shit Robot) made . We controlled the boxes by connecting the MIDI from an AKAI MPC to a MIDI power strip which turned the lights on and off according to how we played/programmed the MPC :
1AM: Time to DJ and people actually showed up:
2:30AM: We DJ'd then handed it over to Special Disco Version, who KILLED it:
4AM: James and Pat put one final jam down. We danced like crazy. I'm wearing a bahja. It was cold and I forgot a jacket:
5am: Time to go to bed: