damn testudo that was ridiculous.
they were fine with radio and tv broadcasts (which janie is selling short, yet again. i seem to recall that a fantastic fan comp of live performances were done out of these tin can recordings) until recently and absolutely did not mind when rtsr started quite openly trading them around. they still don't. it's just that these live shows are planned to be part of their discography and as such can't be traded or given away for free. the shows are hot off the board but there is some mixing going on, as we've had soundboard and recorded gigs from the last incarnation of UWlive and the sound isnt up to snuff. you want to talk about tin can, the one from fuji sounds bloodless unless you crank it to 11. these new recordings are, like it or not, live
albums. they're not charging you for a bootleg, they're just doing what we've always dreamed of.
in terms of other content they're not exactly coming up short on that today either. we've had the lemonworld takes on classic tracks then, and today we're being let in on the progress and evolution of new songs.
that brainwashing comment was... classy
anyway
sets from 94-96 are really heavy on the jam and improv. stuff like that will never ever happen again, but i think it's fair to compare the ahdo era stuff, where the structure started getting more concrete but they still made each show feel different and definitely more loose on standalone gigs, versus todays run and ask 'what happened?'.
on the other hand, thinking about this more, i think all that business may have finally come on because not only was i not digging the 9-angle view, which allowed us to be everywhere and nowhere in there, but it was *also* a very familiar setlist. i couldnt get into it nearly as much as i was into the london ones... i had tabs open and was surfing elsewhere as the gig was playing. when i realized that i got kind of depressed. what the hell happened that i just stopped paying attention to my favorite band? i pointed to a whole lot of possibilities as to why, and i think they're still valid, but that's actually what brought it on,
not a sense of being ultimately "fed up" as i really love (truly) that they keep doing all this for us.
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Originally Posted by johnnymetropolis
Personally, I've also had moments of frustration with the setlist question, but then I hear something like Roundhouse 2, which featured a rather typical setlist, yet was one of the absolute best Underworld performances I've ever heard on my stereo or in person, and I've seen them 6 or 7 times by now and twice on this current tour. The truth seems to be found not in setlists, but in that wholly intangible, performance "thing" that changes from show to show to show -- and that's rather the whole point of the band, isn't it?
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yeah, what is it about roundhouse 2 anyway? it's almost as "guilty" as the rest of them but it's the only one to really blow me away. i usually think it's just how relentless and fast the second half is, and the minor moaner switch-up in position, but it's really special to a lot of people, and i think the intangible performance "thing" is a good way of putting it