2015-03-06 London - Hyde and Price

[markreed]

I thoug Tongue, River Of Bass, m.e. and Bigmouth seemed to deflate the crowd a little. The response to Dirty Epic, Cowgirl, Rez, Born Slippy etc was euphoric as normal.

[BishBash]

Originally Posted by surfboy1985

Who was the support for the London show?

It was a DJ set. I was asking about this on the Bristol thread pre-gig yesterday, Steve Hall was mentioned but I don't know for sure who was DJing. Even a guy at the venue could only tell me it was a "very special guest dj"

Originally Posted by markreed

I thoug Tongue, River Of Bass, m.e. and Bigmouth seemed to deflate the crowd a little. The response to Dirty Epic, Cowgirl, Rez, Born Slippy etc was euphoric as normal.

I agree with you on the tracks that the crowd got excited about. I just think its a shame that the crowd couldn't/wouldn't listen to the quieter tacks that you mention. I thought Bigmouth was reasonably well received, at least when Karl was honking on the harp.

[skyscraper101]

This is why I'm generally not all that enthusiastic about the whole of dubnobass being played from begining to end.. there are tracks fro this album which just don't work in big venues. Tongue, and River of Bass are the obvious examples. I thought M.E. was pretty good but the audience were too loud and pissed up to make it enjoyable.

It would be enough to do the tour in honour of the 20th anniversary and play the biggest tracks but swap those slower numbers out for a couple of classics from second toughest or beaucoup fish.

Then the fact that every track sounds exactly as it does on the album removes much of what I loved Underworld's live shows for... the tweaking and experimenting with effects and delays and tempos in the stems, the seamless blending of tunes together, the overall manipulation which set every night separately apart. Rick not being there just dampened the overall effect. Darren did ok like, but he's not one to take the limelight or do anything interesting with the music. It's not his to mess about with anyway.

Personally I hope they'll get back to playing more of the better tracks from all the first three albums, and start mixing it up a bit more on stage. I want to see a live show, not a playback with live vocals.

[markreed]

It certainly felt a lot more rigid than RFH. Having seen the Smith/Hyde/Emerson, Smith/Hyde, Smith/Hyde/Price, and now Hyde/Price, the Rick-less version of the band is the least convincing. I know Rick can't help being ill, but I overheard conversation around this outside from others that they couldn't tell what Darren actually did apart from press "start" and "stop". (Harsh!). Certainly on some of them, I think there were sections where the whole song is largely preconfigured and arranged and Darren's role is to ensure that the set runs on autopilot.

Since drum machines don't get tired, I can't see why the set was 25 minutes shorter than RFH, apart from the fact that too many instrumental tracks would highlight Rick's absence even more. The band could've come on at 8.30, and play an extra 45 minutes of say, "Pearls Girl", "Jumbo", "Two Months Off", "Crocodile", "Always Loved A Film", "Dark Train", etc. The whole evening did feel it had an element of 'waiting for the hits' from the crowd.

[TheBang]

Originally Posted by BishBash

It was a DJ set. I was asking about this on the Bristol thread pre-gig yesterday, Steve Hall was mentioned but I don't know for sure who was DJing. Even a guy at the venue could only tell me it was a "very special guest dj"

I saw a picture and can confirm that it's Steve Hall.