lots of good points made. and some winjing
i'm never going to get tired of underworld shows whatever songs they play. they create an energy/buzz/vibe in the room that i've not experienced with any other live act. watching it live (for free) over the web is great - but completely different to being there. you cant rate a live show based on sitting in your lounge at your pc! the success of a live show is indicated by how much it went off in the room. if playing the big guns like moaner achieves that then why not play it? i'm not going to winj about their setlists on their forum because every live show i see the crowd 'av it big time so uw are clearly doing summat right
the shows in 96/97 were, er, 10+ years ago. underworld had less must-play-crowd-pleasing tracks to perform. they were selecting from a much smaller library of tunes. they played all their fave/best tunes at the time. some of these are what we'd now consider as obscure treats, but they've given way to newer tunes like KOS/TMO/Jumbo etc. those tunes from 10+ years ago are prob the tunes that made a lot of us fans in the first place - so they are v special for us and prob a lot of our faves. in addition re: fluidity: a lot of the old tracks were v similiar style (in fact many seemed to evolve from each other) and therefore mixed together naturally (and for all i know were already in the same mixer config or whatever/however it works). i think with such random/varied tune styles over the years (and with newer more songy arrangements) it's much harder to seamlessley mix them anymore? who knows. just a thought.
i'm not sure how long rick's been ill but i'm sure i read that he's not been too well for a while. i wonder if he's been underneath the weather (cor, almost a mk1 megamix there) for this tour, and is less confident about taking on difficult mixes and tunes/mixer setups he's not played so often?
i agree that the track lists on this tour have not been very varied, and i too would love to see them pick out some of their obscure tunes more often. i'd also love it if they could mix tunes together more and i hope it's something they can do in the future. actually i'd like them to play a show just for me using all my fave mixes of my fave tunes - but apparently they have to please the rest of the paying crowd too. dang how selfish of 'em
one more thing - they're not young guys anymore (nor am i!) and so sometimes they need a bit of a break! i guess karl likes to stop for a few mins half way thru (after TMO during kittens/rowla) cos he's been jumping round like a nutter for ages. let them play tunes and enjoy the applause - the gOoD vIbRaTiOnS from the crowd
cheers dirties and big cheers for uw
jono