08/24/08 Agents of Mayhem (Molitz, Gutwillig,Travis & Hann)/EOTO/DJ Logic @ Spiegeltent, New York, NY

This jamband supergroup concocted by Particle's Steve Molitz featured Disco Biscuits shredder Jon "Barber" Gutwillig along with String Cheese Incident offshoot EOTO (Michael Travis and Jason Hann). DJ Logic spun intermittently and joined in several jams. The venue was the magical circular Spiegeltent inside Spiegelworld on the north side of South Street Seaport. It was the traveling beer hall's final NYC season.

The Agents of Mayhem was a nod to Yippie Abbie Hoffman's prankster ways. The band fittingly pranked the entire crowd when Barber was "arrested" onstage. Much of the crowd scattered after Barber got led off stage in handcuffs. Someone yelled, "If they got Barber, no one's safe!"

Those who remained began chanting "Fuck the police!" Our collective jaw dropped when the "cop" came back, guitar in tow. Barber explained, "He's a Biscuithead." The officer then led the group through a appropriate and rousing rendition of "Come Together".

They also covered the hit song of the summer, MGMT's "Time To Pretend".

08/11/07 Afrokinetic @ Spiegelworld, New York, NY

For all the great NYC venues that have been forced out by gentrification and the ensuing exorbitant rent increases, at least one's lack of permanency was planned from the get go.

Spiegelworld was a traveling tent housing a beer garden and an intimate circus tent venue. For a few glorious summers, it set up shop on the north side of the South Street Seaport and hosted numerous late night dance parties on the pier.

We found ourselves swinging in hammock chairs at the very edge of Lower Manhattan while the Afrokinetic collective spun afrobeat augmented by live percussion in the disco tent behind us. The sweaty dance party under the summer skies was a perfect end to a classic city day.