Darren Emerson leaving UW was the worst thing that happened to the band!

[heavens_night]

Originally Posted by Dirty0900

Hmm if you don't think they can improv, watch this version of Crocodile when it all goes a bit wrong [around 2.18]. Theres something locked away in Rick's desk if an emergency happens:

They turned a minor disaster into an 'a capella' .... Love it. They definitely still know how to improvise.

[potatobroth]

HMH '05 is an amazing stream of tracks with improvs. They are as good as with Emerson at this point.

[//\/\/]

my fave live shows were all emerson ones - once he'd gone and the improvs went things got dull live - no flow, too close to the album versions, predictable.

pricey back, whatever it is he's doing, seems to have brought back a certain degree of playfulness again.

underworld may not be missing emerson (though ahdo sucked balls big time - put that down to coincidence if you like...), but underworldlive certainly did from what i saw...

[//\/\/]

though i far prefer 'can you feel this bass?' - was gutted that it wasn't part of the roundhouse gig i was at...

[big screen satellite]

when did Emerson leave...?

shit i missed that...

*mourns*

[//\/\/]

sorry matt - i was on holiday; got back and he was gone....

[stimpee]

not to sound like a total fanboy, but i've been to a lot of underworld gigs and though i've had my bitching session about certain tours not sounding as good as before, things have improved immensely since Pricey joined.

The 1994-96 gigs were incredible because the band could jam and explore every possibility of all the loops and melodies theyd put to disk in the studio, with the added freedom that the crowd werent there to hear "the hits".

Everything Everything which covers the live period between late 97 to mid 99 is an evolution of the earlier period while the jamming is sort of gone, it morphs from song to song and still includes the epic non-singles (e.g. juanita/cups/rowla/kittens). I think after that it was the end of the road for that setlist. When you combine new equipment, a band member leaving, and new material you have to re-think your whole live output. While I wasnt a big fan of the 2001-02-03 tours, listening back to them they sound a lot better than i remember, even if they are more stop-start.

With Price on board Rick can concentrate on things and overlap the tunes, or let Darren stick his own tunes on (which are damn good) while he sets up the next one. By the time the autumn of 2005 came along Pricey was very familiar with the setup as anyone who witnessed the two 013/Tilburg shows or the Luxembourg show the following day will confirm. Three hours each show with plenty of flow, plenty of new tunes and old ones dusted off, and a real happy feel on stage.

Right now the shows are as good as they have been since 99 for me, and I'm approaching 30 gigs since 1994. Nice post dave, but its borderline trolling and you need to come back and backup your claims.

[King of Snake]

Originally Posted by stimpee

not to sound like a total fanboy, but i've been to a lot of underworld gigs and though i've had my bitching session about certain tours not sounding as good as before, things have improved immensely since Pricey joined.

The 1994-96 gigs were incredible because the band could jam and explore every possibility of all the loops and melodies theyd put to disk in the studio, with the added freedom that the crowd werent there to hear "the hits".

Everything Everything which covers the live period between late 97 to mid 99 is an evolution of the earlier period while the jamming is sort of gone, it morphs from song to song and still includes the epic non-singles (e.g. juanita/cups/rowla/kittens). I think after that it was the end of the road for that setlist. When you combine new equipment, a band member leaving, and new material you have to re-think your whole live output. While I wasnt a big fan of the 2001-02-03 tours, listening back to them they sound a lot better than i remember, even if they are more stop-start.

With Price on board Rick can concentrate on things and overlap the tunes, or let Darren stick his own tunes on (which are damn good) while he sets up the next one. By the time the autumn of 2005 came along Pricey was very familiar with the setup as anyone who witnessed the two 013/Tilburg shows or the Luxembourg show the following day will confirm. Three hours each show with plenty of flow, plenty of new tunes and old ones dusted off, and a real happy feel on stage.

Right now the shows are as good as they have been since 99 for me, and I'm approaching 30 gigs since 1994. Nice post dave, but its borderline trolling and you need to come back and backup your claims.

nice one.
I was just listening/watching some clips of the lowlands gig last year. They had a lot of problems with the computer and the first 15 minutes is quite interesting to hear. They're trying to play Crocodile but keep having to go back to some minimal improvisations, with bits of Karl just singing acapella cause the computers have crashed, and then a bit of Skyscraper comes in somewhere and after 10 minutes they finally go back to Crocodile again. It's not the best improvisation ever but you have to respect the way they manage to keep a good show going even when the technology fails. I was at that gig and a lot of people who didn't know underworld that well didn't even notice anything was wrong.

Darren Price certainly adds to the live show, although sometimes it sounds like they are kinda limited to just doing a dj-style crossfade mix between one computer runnig a Price song and the rest of the setup running the underworld material. They sometimes seem to have trouble beatmatching two tracks and have to revert back to an ambient interlude which is a shame. But I've still heard some great improvs and transitions in the "recent" gigs. Most notably the Borialis-Deep Arch-5 foot 5-Air Towel-Mowed Path sequence from the Rotterdam gig.

[Champiness]

Originally Posted by King of Snake

nice one.
I was just listening/watching some clips of the lowlands gig last year. They had a lot of problems with the computer and the first 15 minutes is quite interesting to hear. They're trying to play Crocodile but keep having to go back to some minimal improvisations, with bits of Karl just singing acapella cause the computers have crashed, and then a bit of Skyscraper comes in somewhere and after 10 minutes they finally go back to Crocodile again.

They did all that during a mechanical breakdown? Seriously? I was about to put that on my wishlist for Album 6. It blew me away. Thankfully, it was recorded.

[Camiel]

Please! Bring Alan back!

Oops... wrong forum and thread.