Conspirator 4-16-13
Right off the bat, some huge issues need to be addressed as far as how this band is perceived on scene. Regardless of the original intent or initial manifest, these guys shred. Conspirator, unfortunately, happens to be constantly dismissed by a lot of old heads and biscuits fans alike because of the way they view this band.
Many on scene see Conspirator as a “side-project” that consumes Magner’s and Brownie’s attention with what’s now a heavy Fall/Winter/Spring tour and even huge summer appearances at festivals like Hangout Fest, Bonaroo, Mountain Jam, and Summer Camp.
Many point to the fact that their beloved Biscuits aren’t touring regularly in response to the recent success and the buzz Conspirator is creating. This is purely asinine.
The Biscuits are at a different stage in their career. Touring every night playing similar shows from city to city is no longer suiting for such an iconic jam band.
Not constantly touring keeps the Disco Biscuits fresh and allows them to invite fans to a world they have set up at specific venues for extremely significant explosions of a unique style of showmanship and exhilarating entertainment.
Feed the Rocks and the few nights leading up to it would not be feasible with a constant touring schedule circa 2009. Road to Bisco, City Bisco, Camp Bisco, Bisco Inferno, Mayan Holidaze, and Winter Inferno are all the most unique settings and environments and you just cant bottle up that magic and recreate it in a venue every night. Its time to come to terms and grasp the idea that days of Peter Shapiro’s Wetlands managers charging stage and cursing Brownie for playing one more 30 minute song at 4am are over.
That being said, Conspirator is a perfect way to catch 2/4’s of tDB in a smaller venue amongst a more personal atmosphere.
Side projects happen all the time and are a necessary part of most major jam bands. The original side projects like The Jerry Garcia Band, Eric Clapton doing things outside of Crème, and the Allman brothers playing with everyone who would share the stage, are all setting the tone as an example for today’s bands to keep it fresh.
Projects like Beard-O-Bees from Lotus, Murph playing with Up Until Now, Pigs on the Wing, Digital Tape Machine, Cosby Sweater, and Kung Fu are all great examples of how artists can mix it up with dudes that may approach their instruments with various styles differing from how the band those artists originated from play.
Conspirator isn’t even the only side projects the Biscuits dabble in. All members have had their hand in various side projects such as Elecrton, Dr. Fameus, Kick Rocks, Up Until Now, or SUCKERPUNCH. Still Conspirator is stead fast in being linked to tDB the way EOTO will forever be connected with SCI.
Conspirator came to life during a down period in 2004 while the Biscuits were between drummers. With Marc Brownstein slapping out funky baselines, Arron Magner running the world using a keyboard, and Dj Omen on the 1’s and 2’s, this band was created for the EDM scene, yet something was still missing.
One of the Aspects that set Conspirator apart from all other electronic acts, is the way they utilize the heavy yet precise guitar rifts. Locking up Chris Michetti, or as Brownie knows him, “The guy from RAQ?!?!?!” as a permanentt member brought that one of a kind sound to the table. This is the sound that lets you know “Ey, This can ONLY be Conspirator.” Similar to the way Dom and Jeremy utilize that saxophone over in “SOLD OUTsville”(don’t sleep on Rowdy Town tix) those sick nasty rifts give Conspirator an arsenal of trax to get any crowd on their feet.
After a musical chairs of drummers and other special guests playing in, to the likes of Murph(tribe), Lane Shaw(Pnuma Trio, Mansions On The Moon), Jeremy Salken(Big G), and Mike Greenfield(Lotus), the spot behind the kit was locked up by none other than KJ Sawka. This man banged sticks in Pendulum while playing stages like Glastonbury.
Sawka is also a beast when it comes to mixing down and mastering and had a huge hand in putting out the first two Live Albums Unlocked: Live from the GA Theatre and Conspirator: Unleashed.
The two albums really pulled this band away from their original Project The Key and allowed them to grow into an identity of it’s own. The Key was mostly tweaking select Biscuit songs and adding in random original Conspirator pieces.
Fans were a bit turned off by this approach and were a bit uneasy to hear the recycling and mutations of their favorite tunes. Conspirator needed a complete 180 to nurture a new and more open fan base to appease instead of just catering to the Biscuit faithful.
The Turntable FM release party for Unlocked was the perfect storm to open up to a different genre of EDM. Seeking Bromance and Retrograde are the two tracks that really skyrocketed everything.
I have seen this band shred huge crowds at Camp and Gnarnia, and still brought the same energy to venues like the Howard and State Theatre, yet nothing came close to the show they put on last week in Morgantown, at 123 Pleasant.
An atmosphere generated in a super tiny super intimate venue like this is something that cannot be faked.
Motown was alive and buzzing on this warm spring day. The massive campus was crawling with kids soaking up the weather and exposing themselves to what most would consider sensory overload (“Sup, Sup, Sup, Sup”).
After scoring sweet grabs from one of the best head shops I have had the chance to scope out on the East Coast (of course the name of the shop is Brownie’s), we got together for a grueling pre-game of power hour and headed out right when the sky opened up and released the onslaught of rain to enhance our voyage downtown.
Conspirator packed the dance floor and had both bars taken over by beat fiends wall to wall, bar to bar. Flooded mountain streets didn’t even phase the kids filling in early to seek shelter in the club, to escape the torrential down poor.
Frantically awaiting for the set to start, the kandi kids lost their mind when Conspirator graced the stage in a dramatic fashion; no openers necessary. I took a tumble in a mad rush to the stage but luckily I was able to catch up with the #IllTightSquad front row.
Getting lost in a show impressive as this is literally the definition of bliss.
Thankfully Conspirator hooked up our home girl Megs with a last minute ticket via twitter. That worked out well as she in turn snapped some crazy pics.
The way they played some of my favorites; Right/Wrong, Hammerdown, Retrograde and Proper Education and a couple new ones that I didn’t recognize, was just too good to be true.
We scanned the set list after the show to figure out which ones we did not recognize and we came up with this. Struts; Ja Me No Partial; KMF; What They Want; Dirty Work; Brookyln Bridge; and Hellsling
It’s a show of it’s own just watching these guys communicate and react to the changes so fast and so smoothly all while just straight slaying and letting Mishreddi shred the way he does best is crazy impressive. 19 songs with no set break equals two hours of hardcore jamming. Funny thing is…you end up craving more when it’s all over.
I couldn’t be more grateful for the way these guys gave us a few minutes after a tiring show to let us catch up with them and allow us to get to see what they are truly about.
These guy’s finished out the tour with their first arena show ever on, no more fitting a date than April 20th. They sold the event out proper, way in advance for a night of Aarab Music, Alvin Risk, Conspirator, and Rusko taking it home.
If you haven’t already, please give Conspirator a chance. These guys are on their way with something extremely special and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
wookiepost 