New York, Central Park reviews, pictures, movies, and more

[TheBang]

OMG OMG OMG, my first Underworld show ever. It was unbelievable!

Underworld took the stage at 7:45 PM and played until 10:00 PM.

Setlist:

Luetin
Dark Train
"HMH Untitled-2" improv
Crocodile
Everybody Jack
Pearl's Girl
Sidestep
Beautiful Burnout
Two Months Off
Rowla (!)
5 Foot 5
Glam Bucket
Lockin Mono
Rez/Cowgirl
Small Conker and a Twix
Born Slippy .NUXX
King of Snake
Jumbo

I don't care too much for Luetin, so it wasn't a great opener for me. But as soon as Luetin finished, the Dark Train mellotron started up, and the crowd went wild. There was so much energy, and it was so loud. I was video taping with my camera, but I just gave up at some point and had to stop so I could dance! That song really got me pumped up for the rest of the show. It sounded like they put some Shake That Higher beats into the beginning of the song, and I was hoping we would get a combination of the two, but it was not to be.

Crocodile was great. The bassline practically exploded as it came in. I saw Rick mouthing the vocoder lines that he sang in Zurich, even though Karl was doing the actual singing.

When Pearl's Girl started up, I was really surprised, because I was not expecting to hear it tonight. The crowd went wild! It was a little down tempo compared to the album version, but it was extremely powerful. One of the best live Pearl's Girls I've ever heard.

Beautiful Burnout was fantastic. I really like the heavy beats as they come in in the last part of the song, so I video'd that.

When Rowla first started, I wondered for a moment if we might be getting Cherry Pie, but Rowla was great too. The crowd didn't seem to really know the song, but they got into in the final third when it goes quiet and then builds up again.

I love 5 Foot 5. It just has a really good groove. They started it off with just one element for about a minute, and it was familiar, but I couldn't quite place it until the rest came in.

Words can't even describe Glam Bucket. I turned to stimpee after it finished, and I think I used the word "tremendous". For some reason, I had chills in the first 30 seconds of the song. And then it has such a wonderful build until the huge 3:2 polyrhythm jam climax! I hope I hear it again tomorrow in Boston.

They started playing the "Everything, Everything" vocal sample and the crowd went nuts, but then slowed it down until it stopped. Then they brought in the Cowgirl rhythm, but I was really happy when they then brought in the Rez bleeps. Unfortunately, the rest of Rez/Cowgirl was somewhat marred for me. It sounded like Rick was constantly tweaking the tempo and pitch up and down, trying to get something right, and it was really distracting. It was going on throughout Rez and parts of Cowgirl, and I saw Rick shaking his head a lot. It might have been just me, but I don't think so. I hope I get another chance to hear this one tomorrow.

As Small Conker and a Twix came on, I held a slim hope that we might get You Do Scribble, but knew from other show reports that we were likely to get Nuxx, and we did. Nuxx was, well, Nuxx. Everyone singing along, of course. It was great, but a bit short. No jam session and a short and sweet regular ending.

Unfortunately, I didn't really get a chance to enjoy Jumbo. I spent most of the song trying to push my way to the rail in order to give Rick and Karl something at the end of the show. This ended up being my most special moment of the show, but it requires some explanation.

At around 1:30 AM on the day of the show, Underworld updated their website, underworldlive.com with a "New York (Audio)" clip, similar to the "city sounds" clips they'd done for SF and Romford. This one had subway sounds, but overlaid on it was a text-to-speech synthesized voice that said "I miss my dog." I listened to it a few times, but it later dawned on me that it might be a literal sentiment.

During the day, before the show, I was walking along, and passed a Barnes & Noble. On a whim, I went in, and while I was hoping to find a dog calendar with a picture of a dalmatian, I actually found a calendar entirely filled with dalmatians.

I brought the calendar with me to the show, with the intention of trying to give it to them somehow. I thought maybe I could attract Karl's attention during a slow part or something, but it just didn't seem right at any point (plus I was in the middle-middle of the crowd, not at the rail). As the show progressed though, I thought that maybe it might work as the show ended. So for Jumbo, I made my way to the front. As the band was taking its final bows, I had made it to the second row from the rail. I had the calendar open to a nice picture of a dalmatian that looked kind of like theirs, and I shoved it forward and held it in front of the face of the woman in front of me (fortunately, she was immediately understanding of what I was doing). Karl noticed it and came down to the front of the stage to grab it. The lighting guy assisted in the hand-off and Karl looked at it and smiled and passed it on to Rick. Rick looked at it, and looked out into the crowd for me. At this point, I held up a small banner I had made that said "woof". Rick handed back the calendar (I wouldn't have minded if they'd kept it; what am I going to do with a dalmatian calendar?), and as he began to walk off stage, he looked at me and put his fist to his heart and then gave me a thumbs up.

Maybe it all sounds kind of corny, but it was really gratifying feeling like I could give a small something back to a group that's given me so much joy from their music, performances, energy, and art. Here's the aforementioned calendar and banner:

http://www.aloha.com/~tabanger/underworld/nycwoof.jpg

This is my first time using this camera (bought it just before this trip), so I'm anxious to see how the pictures and video turn out. I took about 60 pictures and about 25 minutes of video. I'll have to process the rest of it when I get home.

http://www.aloha.com/~tabanger/underworld/nyctmo1.jpg
http://www.aloha.com/~tabanger/underworld/nycjumbo1.jpg
http://www.aloha.com/~tabanger/underworld/nyckos1.mov

Had a great time meeting dirts like joethelion, The Rev, 2dreamofluv, potatobroth, sloff (?), BoldCaptain, Jasondotcom, Jason Roth, loaded tower, holden, and Malt Refund. I had a fun time spending time this week with stimpee and King of Snake. Please remind me if I met you and forgot you.

[potatobroth]

couldnt wait til i got home to write about this (from an NYC apt.)

The show was fantastic. Hightlight for me was 100% Rowla. That track never ever sounded so good. I'm still in awe.

Great meeting a bunch of you over at the Phoenix Park bar. I didn't get the names of a bunch of you nor get the chance to meet everyone - though I wish I had ; I was too busy organizing my own friends. Was nice to meet (remeet?) TheBang, Joethelion (and his ridiculously cute sister, Erin from Ohio or Iowa, or Amsterdamn or somewhere), Malt +1, and so many others. Glad you all came out for the show.

I'll post some pix when i get back to my house in the morning.

R O W L A !

EDIT for more detail:

Luetin
I was standing in the back for this opening track and from back there it seemed really off. Sounds weren't meshing at all. Was that the case up front too? I noticed they dropped a lot of effects - maybe one was the culprit? All in all, just sort of started out a little flat... although Karl and Rick were full of energy as always!

Dark Train
100% fabulous. This put everything right again and got me and my friends full-on into it. It was during this that we made our way into the middle of the pack.

Crocodile
Loved hearing this live. The vocals sounded great.

Pearl's Girl
This pounded Central Park into the ground! Every single percussive hit was crisp and perfect. I really enjoyed hearing this live again even though I wasn't looking forward to it.

Beautiful Burnout
Cannot wait to buy the new album.

Two Months Off
Where can I buy those light tubes for my back yard? Played to perfection as usual. Not much of a deviation from the album version but blissful none-the-less.

Rowla (!)
[COLOR=Sienna]Holy fuck! Its no secret that the live versions of Rowla are among my favorite Underworld tracks, but this one took the cake. I kept waiting in bitter-sweet anticipation for the squelching rawr at the height and they kept teasing it. It wasnt until after the dropout they let us have it either. This was a VERY driving, moody, deliberate version of Rowla and I loved every single second of it. Please oh please release this on UW live![/COLOR]

Glam Bucket
Two friends turned to me at two separate times and said, "I see what makes UW so special." These were friends that have little UW knowledge and never seen a live show. They just 'got it'. It made me happy and was a very respectful comment for the band. Its nice to know that the new stuff can bring out feelings like that.

Rez/Cowgirl
Very nice.

Small Conker and a Twix
Cock-tease! Nice tones though.

Born Slippy .NUXX
Slamming. Everytime this is played I think its going to sound like 'the last time' but it never ever does. I can never get sick of this live.

King of Snake
Sounded good but nothing special.

Jumbo
I was hoping for a mental moaner ending, but Jumbo took us out feeling good and upbeat. The weather, the park, the surroundings all made for Jumbo to be the perfect ending I guess.

[hypeless]

Does anyone know what track[s] / snippets were played *before* Luetin - when they were setting up gear, after the opener was done?

[The359]

I loved Karl just stepping aside and letting Rick and Pricey go at it on Rowla.

I loved the more hardcore Beautiful Burnout

I loved Two Months Off for once (it never sat well with me before)

I loved going out on Jumbo.

I loved it all.

I will have photos and short clips soon.

EDIT: Also, Asteroids + Space Invaders + Pong = awesome.

[loaded_tower]

Brilliant show. I am including my video/photos links here. It's still a bit early to fully process my thoughts about the show. Needless to say, I loved every minute. Underworld in Seattle Spring '99 was magic...but this was purely EPIC...to coin a phrase used so often here. They didn't disappoint. Thanks to all I met at the Phoenix. Everyone was gracious and enthusiastic. I will not soon forget this experience. So...on to the photos/video

Dark Train Video (complete clip)
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fusea...deoid=18117901

Photos
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/inde...e-47f3c2762cf7

I have a bit more video, but no energy to upload it at the moment. Thanks again to everyone.

-gabe

[Jan]

Great reviews/pics/vids... Thank you!
Makes me happy.

Looking forward to see UW soon!

[Ufotofu]

I really like the way they threw that snippet of "Shake That Higher" into Dark Train. Pulsating, mellotron goodness...

[King of Snake]

Originally Posted by hypeless

Does anyone know what track[s] / snippets were played *before* Luetin - when they were setting up gear, after the opener was done?

They played Nick Warren's Global Underground Amsterdam cd I think

[galama]

Rowla, Jumbo, instant love with Crocodile live. I loved how they threw in parts from Dark and Long and made a Dark Train rush on the dancefloor.
If they had played Moaner i would have sat down and start crying. So i guess amids the euphoria that engulfed me, good thing they didn't.
It was an amazing show. First time seeing Underworld Live. All these years of nodding my head while driving, jamming sitting on my computer desk, walking with my headphones, patiently waiting to finally get the premier experience. I feel amazing, still sporting a smile on my face. Next time I'm looking forward to meeting some of you NY Dirtyheads.
Does this make me an official Dirt now?

[geoff]

Hey TheBang, I saw you on my way out of the gig, holding your "WOOF" sign. I was wondering if there was a story behind that guy with the sign! Awesome, awesome show. Dont know if i can describe it any better than you already did. Gotta get myself ready for Boston now!!