Operation: Underworld Live

[holden]

So, i discovered Underworld (outside the rare comp. track) in earnest in 2002. And then i soon discovered the old RTSR FTP.
Like all obsessions, things (i.e downloading and buying) soon got out of hand. And now, 8 years later, i have about 130 bootleg recordings, not to mention all the LPs, most every single and a lot of rarities/imports.

By no means do i have every gig that Underworld has performed, but i do have the majority of those that have been recorded (in concert or via radio) from 1994-present.

Sure, i've listened to them all, usually as soon as i obtained them. Sure, i have my favorites. But recently we moved and i reorganized by CD collection (yes, i burn all the downloads i enjoy to CD), and it was pretty overwhelming. Why am i collecting these? There are only so many hours in the day to listen to music, and it's mostly taken up by whatever's on my mind /mood at present.

Sooo, in the interest of (1) enjoying again all those moments of magical discovery and (2) somewhat scientifically checking again how the band has evolved their live performances, road-tested songs, and build their repertoire of favorites, improvs, one-offs, and period pieces...

i resolve to play at least 2 and hopefully several Underworld boots per day and record a few impressions.

And while many/most on here don't really care about my impressions, i'll keep the posting to the high-points as i see them - e.g. when a new track made the live set for the first time, the first or few recorded versions of an improv or new track that never saw the studio light (as far as we know), the gradual shifting from long improv beat-driven jams to having a catalog capable of sustaining a new tracklist every night, the departure of Darren Emerson, the arrival of Darren Price to the live mix, etc.

I hope that you'll share in the memories and fill in the blanks.

Cheers,
Holden

Firsr up tomorrow: a few lo-fi recordings from 1994...

[khouri]

Brilliant! I thought I was sort of doing this recently by listening to all the Live Here Now albums in chronological order but your thing is tremendously better. Godspeed.

[unwound floors]

As someone who only relatively recently discovered the magic of Underworld, and in a short period of time, has collected a fairly decent collection of bootlegs and other rareties - definitely looking forward to hearing your thoughts and sharing in on the discussion! This should be fun - and only help to make me even more excited about seeing them for the first time in June!

[Champiness]

Somebody make a film about this interspersed with a film-within-a-film about the history of Underworld. Karl can be played by Meryl Streep.

[Andrea]

This should be fun - and only help to make me even more excited about seeing them for the first time in June!

Lucky you!! Hope they will throw you kisses from the stage :)

[Andrea]

Firsr up tomorrow: a few lo-fi recordings from 1994...

Thanks, that sounds very nice. It's not easy to find U/W stuff in general.
You have many other interesting things on your site, I just had no time to listen to it yet.

[dubman]

one hundered and thirty?

joethelion sent me like 30 of them one day and that was p. much enough

[darktrain]

I firmly support and await this project!

[potatobroth]

awesome! ill let you be the one that weeds thru the mass of live shows I too have, for me!

[holden]

Thanks, all, for the support!

I might take this to a blog, so that i don't clutter the forums up too much, but i do hope you're inspired to maybe pull out some older Underworld gems from your collection and take another listen.

Sometimes my collections become so obsessive, i forget the joy of any one piece. And certainly the first shows i obtained were much more special for the newness. Still, there's great strength in being able to "Want what you already have".

[joethelion]

It's funny, I've been listening to some of my old recordings again as well - as I'm trying to get back into the habit of running (instead of smoking cigarettes)

I just listened to "1998 Mojo Club Reeperbahn"

Which I think is the only recording I've got where they play the full version of "Cups". There's also a massively long version of "Push Upstairs", a really weird 13 minute version of "Cowgirl" and the show also has a lot of improv's...

Some of the improv's sound basically like almost finished songs (like the ones before and after "King of Snake"), while others sound like Darren & Rick are trying to figure out what to do with a beat (like the one after Jumbo)

[holden]

Yikes, i can't believe i'm saying this, but i started a blog.
Today's first boots were 1994's Sheffield show and Glasgow gig. Great fun to listen to reaaaly early versions of STITI tracks and a rather bizarre setlist.

http://breakinyourboots.blogspot.com/

[Champiness]

That was an enjoyable read! Could you put a link to the boot in the post so that we unlucky fans who don't have them can listen along?

[chems1919]

This has also inspired me to listen to older recordings more often. Just listened to 2003's Peel Session at Maida Vale; there's like 3 unknown tracks in the set and they're all incredible, especially the last one they play. I wish it would have turned into a song or a digital release of some kind.

[unwound floors]

This has also inspired me to listen to older recordings more often. Just listened to 2003's Peel Session at Maida Vale; there's like 3 unknown tracks in the set and they're all incredible, especially the last one they play. I wish it would have turned into a song or a digital release of some kind.

Coincidence: I gave this a spin on the train to uni yesterday. The improvs are great, and it was wonderful hearing a bit of life injected into some rather flat tracks from A Hundred Days Off (imo, their weakest release to date). Trim and Luetin are killer!

[chems1919]

The improvs are great, and it was wonderful hearing a bit of life injected into some rather flat tracks from A Hundred Days Off (imo, their weakest release to date). Trim and Luetin are killer!

Definitely agree. The opening of Luetin is superb and by the time the transition to Trim occurred later on in the set, I didn't recognize it until the main chords came through.

[holden]

That was an enjoyable read! Could you put a link to the boot in the post so that we unlucky fans who don't have them can listen along?


I'll point you in the direction of RTSR. From their FTP site and bit torrent tacker, i probably obtained 95% of my Underworld live recordings. It takes some time, but the quest is almost as much fun as the discovery.

The other reason why i can't post the gigs is that i've burned them all to CD. Yeah, we live in a digital age, sure. But from multiple bootleggers i've heard the horror story of losing everything when a hard drive failed. Yes, some day, i'll have to upgrade to a new media, as i did from tapes to CD, but in the meantime, the records are semi-permanent. Along with fan artwork!

[stimpee]

Thanks, all, for the support!

I might take this to a blog, so that i don't clutter the forums up too much, but i do hope you're inspired to maybe pull out some older Underworld gems from your collection and take another listen.Feel free to double post, here and on a blog.

[Mike]

I really like this idea, i also started talking about 'underworld live moments' a while back, there are some real gems... It would be great if you could reference the gigography in some way, there might be cross references to songs played at other gigs etc..

Mike

[holden]

Will do, Mike! Yours is a more complete and accurate record for sure!

[holden]

Today, listened to a few shows from 1995:
http://breakinyourboots.blogspot.com/2010/05/1-9-9-5.html

Oh, i love those 20 minute improved jams and extended tracks! The 1996 shows are amazing (see the famed "European Club Gig", to be revisted soon), but they have a much more standard set of tracks. in '95 you can get Oich Oich alongside Spikee and the UW remix of the Chemical Brothers' "Leave Home"!

[//\/\/]

for me, 1995 was them at their solid best live - do a set, have a dj break, come back and do some more - smashing :)

[unwound floors]

Today, listened to a few shows from 1995:
http://breakinyourboots.blogspot.com/2010/05/1-9-9-5.html

Oh, i love those 20 minute improved jams and extended tracks! The 1996 shows are amazing (see the famed "European Club Gig", to be revisted soon), but they have a much more standard set of tracks. in '95 you can get Oich Oich alongside Spikee and the UW remix of the Chemical Brothers' "Leave Home"!

Ugh, that Leave Home remix breaks me with how incredible it is. Intense.

Get Lowlands '95 into you: it's a solid hour of hardcore jamming and improv, with gems like Born Slippy mixed up with Confusion the Waitress lyrics, Spikee/Leave Home, and a really stirring performance of Mmm Skyscraper.

[holden]

Yup. listened to Lowlands 1995, and now am entering a stack of discs labeled 1996...from the first few relistens and from memory/checking the upcoming tracklists, this ithe year that Underworld built confidence - lesss improvs joining unknown tracks, more building and exploring a finite setlist:

http://breakinyourboots.blogspot.com/2010/05/solid-96.html

[froopy seal]

You're getting me all goosebumpy, guys. Gotta get home to listen to all those lovely jams from the olden days. Ah well, at least I got Bootleg Babies and the Dark & Long single on my mp3 player for the train ride home...

@ holden: Thanks for the impetus and nostalgia that your project evoke.

[holden]

Have to post on the blog still, but i'm listening to a thick stack of 1996 shows. More of a fixed setlist, but amazing, long jamming versions.
"Airtowel" at the Quartz festival is mmmmmm!

Posting/listening to more soon.

[stimpee]

Rez @ Readin 96 is epic.

[unwound floors]

Rez @ Readin 96 is epic.

Is that the Rez/Cowgirl mashup on Bootleg Babies? Because that was fucking glorious.

Mmm, Air Towel... reminds me, I gotta find a bootleg somewhere with that on it!

[froopy seal]

Rez @ Readin 96 is epic.Epic is the word. My all-time favourite track. That slooooooowwwwwww Rez beginning is sick. Turning up loud now for hammerin some music sense into the neighbours...

[froopy seal]

Each time I listen to this monster, I develop massive goosebumps and a fat grin when it kicks back in at around 12'. Pure bliss.

[TheBang]

Is that the Rez/Cowgirl mashup on Bootleg Babies? Because that was fucking glorious.

Yes

[holden]

Is that the Rez/Cowgirl mashup on Bootleg Babies? Because that was fucking glorious.

Mmm, Air Towel... reminds me, I gotta find a bootleg somewhere with that on it!

Yup, relistened to Reading 1996 today.

http://breakinyourboots.blogspot.com/

Oh, it's good. Any time "Cherry Pie" and "Rowla" are played back to back, i'm pretty happy. But that Rez/Cowgirl is 16+ of epicness.

[unwound floors]

Inspired by this thread I gave the three-CD Tokyo gig on 25th November, 05 a spin and I have a new goal in life: party with Japanese techno-heads. Never heard a crowd as noisy, joyous and into-it as them! That bit where they're all cheering out in time with Spikee had me grinning like an idiot. A really cool mix of tracks played there, too - everything from Pricey's work (Aquafunk and Yard Beat are great), Riverrun tracks (Peggy Sussed and Lenne Penne) to old-school B-sides like Spikee and Rez to the classics like Juanita, Jumbo, Mmm Skyscraper... and the flawless transitions between King of Snake/Pearl's Girl/Push Upstairs were genius. Bliss.

[unwound floors]

Also, sorry to doublepost, and not strictly relevant, but:

http://thewhisperstream.blogspot.com/2010/05/two-snakes-in-bed.html

I blogged about 'Big Meat Show' on the dubnobasswithmyheadman demo-tape, thought it'd be of interest to some?

[holden]

For whatever interest it's worth - i've arrived at the legendary European Club Gig of 1996. Oh, ithat gig's amazing...my two cents here:

http://breakinyourboots.blogspot.com/

[joethelion]

speaking of UW live shows...

I put Roskilde Festival 1996 on my iPod for a jog, and surprisingly noticed that after "Rowla", Karl actually sings a line or two from "Big Meat Show"

[the-star-samurai]

Damn - this makes me want to get some live sets from my burnt CDs and go into a nostalgia overload.

"Confusion the Waitress" from the European Club Gig is epic! Oh my lord.

Yesterday night I listened to "Globe" (aka Holding the Moth) from the Cocoon set in 2006. Cannot believe I still remember Karl's spoken word about car stats in the intro. Only 15,000 made~. And "All These Things (In Me)" was amazinggg in the 2nd half of the UW set after Sven Vath's.

Good times~

[unwound floors]

speaking of UW live shows...

I put Roskilde Festival 1996 on my iPod for a jog, and surprisingly noticed that after "Rowla", Karl actually sings a line or two from "Big Meat Show"

Is that show (or, indeed, Roskilde 2000) available for download anywhere? I'd love to hear both of them, but can't find them on RTSR or anywhere!

[joethelion]

i've got both on my external hd (which I'm not connected to at the moment)

but when I get back home, I'll at least upload them onto sendspace or whatever

[Dirty0900]

i've got both on my external hd (which I'm not connected to at the moment)

but when I get back home, I'll at least upload them onto sendspace or whatever

Please.

[unwound floors]

You're the best! Cheers :D

[ultradave]

interesting to come across this post as i was just skimming through my collection of live tracks last night to find the one improv gem from the 10-31-98 show where Karl speaks of 3 points, 4 points, 5 points... etc... (from what i believe - could be wrong...) and while I was sampling some tracks, I noticed this track was also played at the Los Angeles 98 show - I believe that was at the Mayan in Downtown (everytime I think of this show - I want to slap myself for missing it!) I don't know how I missed it since I only live like 7 miles away... although the track doesn't compare to the version from the 10-31-98 show (I believe it was Rotterdam...) At any rate - this is one track that I really wish would evolve into something great. here's to hoping that uw will resurrect the bass loop from that track w/the shredding guitar. i heart that track! :rolleyes:

is it time for Bootleg Babies III... :confused: :D