MOBY

+ Titan

Place: Cologne (Germany), E-Werk

Date: November 25^th 2000

Yeah right, a review of a Moby show here on my website. Actually Moby doesn’t play the type of music you usually find on this website, but at least he did a punk rock album a few years ago so that must be enough justification for a live review. To be honest, I like the songs of his latest album “Play” so when I got the chance to see a show by him on one of his few German dates (I think he only played three shows or so in Germany) I jumped at the chance. Although Cologne isn’t really that close to where I live (by car you drive about 4 hours minimum, depending on the traffic), I went there with a friend. We actually planned to spend the night near Cologne so that we didn’t have to drive back home after the show, but somehow we decided to go all the way back when the gig was over. Maybe we wanted to listen really quick to the CDs we bought in the afternoon in a great record store in Cologne that carried every hardcore record you can imagine. But after having arrived back home I was only able to take my contact lenses out of my eyes before I fell asleep. Actually I fell asleep during the drive home, but not for long, because we had to talk most of the time so that the driver didn’t fall asleep at the wheel. Now how does that sound? Yeah, right…

But now to the show: On our tickets one could read that the doors would open at 7.30 pm, and we arrived at the venue around 7 pm. There were already lots of people in front of the entrance which was already open so we went in quickly as it was rather cold outside. Inside we went over to the merchandising desk because I had thought about buying a shirt with one of Moby’s cool paintings for my girlfriend or myself. But at the merchandise stand I saw that a normal short sleeve cost DM 45.-!! Wow. I knew at that point why I prefer small club shows by hardcore bands that don’t want to rip you off with their merchandise. So no shirt this time.

When we entered the part of the venue where the actual show should take place we noticed that the support act had already begun with their set and many people where standing in front of the stage. The hall itself held room for about 2.500 or 3.000 people, I’m not sure about that. When Moby finally came on stage it was pretty full, but not in a way that you couldn’t go forward or back. But back to the support band: As their name wasn’t printed on the tickets I didn’t know their name. They came from Mexico and told the audience that unfortunately they didn’t speak German. Well that’s not so bad, because most international acts don’t do that, but these guys didn’t speak much English, too. So they couldn’t tell the viewers their name, too (Well, maybe they did, but I can’t remember that. Hey, I just heard that they were called Titan). It was a four piece, a guitarist, a bass player, and two guys standing behind turntables and keyboards. They played some kind of electronic music that wasn’t that innovative if you know what I mean. Well, I didn’t like their songs that much, it was okay but after a while it began to bore me. But after some more songs they left the stage and it was time for the act everyone had come to see.

Exactly on 8 pm Moby entered the stage and he left it two hours later after he did some encores. First off, the lightshow was great. Maybe I’m not used to such huge light shows anymore (the last one I saw was even bigger, but that was back in 1998 when I went to a Depeche Mode show), but it really was impressing. Moby was supported by a female bassist, a DJ, a drummer and a female background singer. He himself sung (of course), played guitar during some of the songs, operated the keyboards and did some of the percussion. He played lots of the great songs from the album “Play”, and one could clearly see that most of the people that had come to this show knew the songs that had been played on the radio and for which videos had been shown on TV, because when these particular songs were played they cheered the most. Well, never mind. There were some people in the audience that really got on my nerves. You know, Moby didn’t concentrate on his new stuff, but he also did one or two songs from his punk rock album “Animal rights.” And when he played these songs (you know, they were in the punk rock vein), some “cool” guys decided to show the others how “wild” they can be when “harder” songs are played. In fact, they jumped up and down and pissed me off by hitting me in the back sometimes. I pushed them aside and wished they could be at a hardcore show once on their life, because they wouldn’t survive the very first song, no matter which band would play. I would even pay the ticket for them if they wanted to go to a hardcore gig, because I think it would be funny to see their astonished faces when they would be aware of “real” moshing. But I think I’m talking too much about these stupid idiots, let’s get back to the show…

As I said before, Moby played all of his hits and more, and it was cool. I was glad that I had my ear plugs with me as it was really loud. But not at the expense of the sound quality that was really good. What can I say more? It was fun to dance and watch the great light show, and the playing time was ok, too (two hours, right before the disco took place in the very same venue…). But all in all I prefer smaller club shows by hardcore or emo bands, because it feels better in my opinion. Nevertheless a cool evening. (Stefan)