2016-03-17 Columbiahalle - Berlin, Germany

[Rioja]

Originally Posted by skyscraper101

My main concern these days is not so much the setlist, but that they've been playing the tracks with very little to no variation from how they sound on the albums. One of the joys of watching them back in the day was how Rick used to play around with the samples, change the instrumentation, and fade in the b-line and synths at will.

Indeed, indeed - I have to say "yes" to this. I mean, I am a die-hard UW fan (we all are, of course), but yeah I'm yearning to hear some serious improv! I loved it when, for example, different drums were played with Nuxx, Snake, etc. Also when songs began unusually like perhaps something just with the bass line or a single synth motif. Or, as Skyscraper notes, samples of Juanita's spoken word were peppered throughout a track's intro, outro, etc.

I forget which performance it is*, but there's this brilliant intro to Pearls where Juanita's laughter, shifted down in pitch, is played throughout. Such great, inspired stuff! And I know this isn't a radical departure, but I've always wanted to hear just the triangle from Moaner start the song, then maybe go into the short synth bit at the end...

(*Found it: was the legendary Blue Mountain performance from 1999. Mayan Theater in L.A. (forget which year) also had an incredible Pearls intro. But my all-time PG fave is probably the intro done at the I Love Techno fest. (Again, year? Seems I'm a bit daft when it comes to years.)

And don't get me wrong: I'm not saying I want to go back in time. I'm just saying I'd like to hear the individual tracks of each tune messed around with a bit in new ways, perhaps. Otherwise, the strips of paper labeled with the instrumentation for each song (for the purpose of being overlaid on the board) don't really need to be there.)