Legendary music producer and innovator Brian Eno once said, "Music has narrowed down into being not that which is audible, but that which is recordable."

And then there are the Disco Biscuits. Eno wasn't able to take the band's live chemistry and spontaneity into account when making that statement.

Flying in the face of Eno's remark is the Nittany 500, a live music festival on Monday and Tuesday at the Tussey Mountain Amphitheatre, where the Disco Biscuits headline both nights with some of today's finest live performers.

On Monday, Astralyte will kick off the show, followed by one-man band Keller Williams and then two sets of the Disco Biscuits. Lotus leads off on Tuesday, followed by Brock and then another two sets of the Biscuits, with DJ Seishi spinning at the set break. The festivities run from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. both days.

And in keeping with the racetrack theme, there will be go-kart racing all day long.

For the third year in a row the Disco Biscuits are producing the event, alternately dubbed Camp Bisco, Bisco Nights or Bisco Inferno.

"They've put on a unique show the last couple of years," said Dave Fahrenbach, general manager of Tussey Mountain.

The guys themselves have always had a lot of fun doing shows at Tussey and are looking forward to returning this year.

"State College has always been a great place for us," Biscuits' keyboardist Aron Magner said.

Magner and bandmates love the freedom of being allowed to do their own type of festival. The band is given more control in all aspects of production, from the sound system to choosing security, as well as the other bands invited to perform.

"We appreciate a lot of different styles of music," Magner said.

Formed in 1996 on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, the Biscuits pioneered a blend of two seemingly disparate musical genres: jam rock and electronica, or more specifically, the neo-hippie and raver cultures.

The result is what the band calls "trance-fusion," a remarkably tight sound drawn from the best of rock and jazz explorations with the driving force of dance music behind it.

But it is the feel of community in the Biscuits' scene that Magner says is the most defining characteristic of the band. The band members strive to create "happy places" where everyone is totally fused, whether in the pit or onstage.

"[Our crowd] is there for the vibe and [the fans are] multiplying daily," he said.

In an effort to recreate that experience for fans to take home with them, the Biscuits have released an ambitious three-disc set of live recordings titled TranceFusionRadio. These "broadcasts" are taken from its three-night 2002 New Years run in Philadelphia.

"We wanted to really give Bisco fans a crystal clear sonic viewing," Magner said. "For a hardcore Bisco fan, it's like putting on a pair of glasses."

Magner said the band was concerned about the flow of the discs and didn't want to be confined to piecing shows together when mastering in the studio. Consequently, Broadcast 2 is virtually the uncut second set of its Dec. 29 show.

"They did a ... fantastic job making this sound good," he said.

There's still no substitute for the real thing though. The Biscuits are in the midst of an East Coast summer tour, accompanying various artists as festival season begins winding down.

Versatile instrumentalist Keller Williams is another regular on the summer festival circuit who will be performing at the Nittany 500.

The acoustic guitarist, whose technical wizardry and quirky sense of humor have garnered comparisons to Leo Kottke and Michael Hedges, also has an uncanny knack for rhythm and harmony.

"I dig that guy a lot," Magner said of the guitarist.

Williams got his break playing with the String Cheese Incident, a Colorado-based jam band. In 1995, after seeing a few of its shows, he approached the band with a demo. They soon became friends and collaborators.

"I think about that all the time," Williams said, when asked if he ever considered doing the same for another budding artist. "They definitely hooked me up in a huge way."

Williams is anticipating the release of his latest solo offering, Home. His eighth album release, it is the first to feature just one performer -- himself. The album is composed of half instrumental and half vocal tunes, and features Keller on all the instruments -- bass, drums, guitar, guitar synth, organ, percussion and vocal harmonies.

In his onstage act, Williams uses a Lexicon Jam Man, the piece of live looping technology that makes him a one-man-band. He shuffles around stage, barefoot, weaving through his eight guitars and recording layers of rhythm that he can sample with the push of a pedal.

He's even got a new toy, an electronic wave instrument called a theremin. Two antennas protrude from the device, one controlling pitch and the other controlling volume.

Sounds are created with hand motions, while not actually touching the instrument.

Aside from the fact that its bulk only allows for gigs within driving distance, the theremin will not be making an appearance at the Nittany 500, Keller said. His goal is to give the fans at Tussey Mountain a more laid back show.

"I've definitely had some good times at State College," he said. "I think Sigma Nu wrote me a bad check one time, but other than that."

At a show like the one at Tussey, Keller will likely play for a smaller crowd than would be typical for one of the summer festivals on his schedule. A crowd upwards of 80,000 converged on Manchester, Tenn., this past June for the Bonnaroo music festival, where Keller played to a packed pavilion tent.

"Bonnaroo was extremely surreal," he said.

Nonetheless, with his popularity on the rise, Williams says he is not concerned that larger crowds will lessen the intimacy of his performances.

"I don't think the bigger venues are going to change that," he said.

The Disco Biscuits were slated to appear at the Northeast version of Bonnaroo in Riverheard, N.Y., also the site intended for the ill-fated Field Day Festival. Both were planned as three-day festivals, but permits for the events were ultimately denied.

"It would have been a huge and fantastic time," said Magner. "But they handled [the cancellation] the best way they possibly could."

In any event, the road goes on for the Biscuits. The band added some dates to its summer tour to make up for the cancelled Bonnaroo NE.

Scheduling aside, the band has learned to expect just about anything and take it as it comes. During the culminating show of its New Years run, guitarist Jon "Barber" Gutwillig got so into the performance he actually broke his arm onstage.

"I think he was testing the laws of physics," Magner said.

It's a good lesson for Nittany 500 festival-goers; keep your head up and don't be surprised at what you see.

Magner summed it all up. "It's gonna be a ... dope time."