Last night I had the privilege of seeing Underworld perform live at Toronto’s Kool Haus. Terrific energy in the club and the sound was crisp, clear and booming.
Upon entry, Damian Lazarus was djing a deep and, by times, “cosmic” set augmented by his own vocals and external effects. I think he did a pretty good job but kept the tone of the performance understated and somewhat brooding.
Underworld’s entrance upon the stage elicited a dramatic increase in energy in the room that didn’t let up until the final song. Working on a massive bank of computers and perhaps some real audio “hardware,” the boys hammered out the hits for an hour and a half.
Simple lighting effects were used to great effect and behind the band was a row of inflatable tubes that served as both a screen for projected images and as glowing backing lights.
- See the tubes? They were all vertical for the first half of the show and then became these neon stalagmite-looking things
I must admit that I’m not the biggest Underworld fan so I can’t really tell you all the songs they played, however: Rez/Cowgirl, Beautiful Burnout, Dark and Long, Born Slippy, Two Months Off, King of Snakes were performed…and the encore of Moaner really blew me away!
Even though it may be cliche for me to say this, the performance of Born Slippy was a definite highlight. After the massive and densly-layered intro percussion of Born Slippy boomed through the Kool Haus, the breakdown was punctuated by the release of 15 or so mega-mega white balloons that bounced around like beach balls and really made me feel “rave-tastic”!
- See those balloons!? They were massive and by the end of the show, had all been destroyed on hot lights.
All in all a terrific show, well-produced, and great energy! My only complaint is that I had to get up to do the 9-5 thing today :S Regardless, I would most definitely go see them again – even if it was on a school night 🙂
P.S. My friend Laurie McGregor had the chance to interview Underworld prior to their show here in Toronto! You can read the interview here.
P.P.S. Quotes from the Underworld Twitter feed:
Toronto you lifted our spirits made the flight with the miserable stewardess worth it Pricey ate all the pizza but I feel fine about 8 hours ago from web
Toronto in the dark we slide out’ve the sky, bodies no idea what time hungry 4 food & love 10yrs since the last time. I smell fish in lifts
Hot Jambalaya! 