Camp Bisco: The Music (2019)

I really didn’t know if it would be worth it to go all the way to Scranton for one day of Camp Bisco. There are music festival days where you feel like you see everything and music festival days where you manage to only see one artist of note. Despite the 95 degree day keeping me in my hotel room longer than originally anticipated, I still had a really full day of music and have zero regrets about this 24 hour adventure.

SunSquabi This funk band was my first set of the day, and my first Squabi show ever. It was a little jammier than I anticipated but still a nice kickoff. I’m not the biggest fan of jam bands because I don’t really have the attention span for it, but over the last few years I’ve really become accustomed to the music.

Jaenga I follow Jaenga on Facebook, although I have no idea why because I didn’t know anything about him. I guess I must have at some point in life, though. This set turned out to be pretty heavy dubstep which isn’t usually my thing these days, but I really enjoyed it…for about 15 minutes until I thought I was going to pass out from the heat so I had to go to a different stage with more shade.

Umphrey’s McGee Umphrey’s is really a standout in the land of jam bands because their music is so all over the place in a really great way. This was a particularly heavy rock set from them which my friend and I were both pretty into. It wasn’t too much of a stretch for me because the only other time I’ve seen Umphrey’s they ended their set with an incredible Pantera cover, but my understanding is that usually they’re a little less intense.

Walker & Royce Camp Bisco never really has much house music, which manages to surprise me (but not disappoint me because I don’t care) every year. W&R was the only house set of the weekend, and it was one of those times where I was completely indifferent to all the music going on at that time so I went because that’s where my friend wanted to go. I actually really liked it?! Goooo house music.

SoDown This set was one of those blissful festival moments where you know that everyone is at a different stage because some other much more highly visible artist is playing elsewhere. SoDown has live sax which gives him immediate bonus points in my book. He’s very reminiscent of GRiZ but somehow is both more mellow and a lot more bass heavy. The contrast was really nice and this was easily my favorite set of the day. So glad we skipped Liquid Stranger for this one.

Odesza I’ve officially overdone it on Odesza. I enjoyed this set but I’ve seen this same exact set already a few times this year, plus I listened to their Electric Forest set just a few days before Bisco. So I hit the Odesza wall and I hit it hard. I have no regrets, but I’m no longer sad that as of last weekend they’re done touring for the moment (they’ve been touring this album for TWO YEARS) and are heading back into the studio. I’m ready.

P.S. I am still very much of the opinion that artists can play the same set as often as they want to. Even though I’m tired of this set from Odesza, that fault lies 100% with me for seeing it too many times.

The Disco Biscuits As I mentioned earlier, I’ve really come a long way on jam bands and specifically on the Biscuits, who play 6 sets over the course of each Camp Bisco. I saw more Biscuits on one day of Bisco this year than I did in 3 days of my first Bisco in 2015, and have come to even really look forward to their final set of the festival, which always has the most pew pew trippy laser feel to it. We were watching this set from way back on the lawn and I remarked how it was more chill than usual, until I went down into the pit for the last 15 minutes. The change in energy was remarkable. It seems obvious that yes, of course the energy changes as you get closer to the stage, but this was like a completely different concert to the extent where I briefly wondered if they were just playing completely different music than when I had been sitting up on my lawn (they weren’t). It was really eye-opening.

Less than 2 weeks to Outside Lands in San Francisco!! Super pumped to head out west to experience a new festival with one of my OG festival buddies. Gonna be a good one.