2016-03-24 London Roundhouse 1

[skyscraper101]

Anyone here? Checking in from the front at the Roundhouse

[BrotherLovesDub]

Fire alarm at the show? What's happening?

[amhilde]

Just got home. We bailed after seeing everyone streaming back onto the floor after the fire alarm or whatever that was. Lost a PRIMO spot at the front, was having an excellent show and then the music just.... died in the middle of KoS (and it was just ROCKING). Rick and Karl went off stage after saying it would take five minutes, and I noticed all the folks in the seats being herded out. Then they did us on the floor. Somehow I eventually ended up way out beyond the tour busses and then op! everyone can go back in!

*sigh*

It seemed like it could be less than pleasant to stay, as EVERYONE in the venue was essentially allowed on the floor and they weren't checking tickets to get back in (fair enough!) and folks were getting pushy and the floor was wet because it had been raining outside. So after watching the band come back on (from the sidelines) and trying to recue KoS back up (and having some difficulty) we decided to beat the crowd and catch the bus home because they had maybe 15 minutes left before the curfew.

Disappointed and no explanation as to what happened. After last week's difficult show this one was so much better and I was around some cool people and no cigarette smoke! :D

I was one back from the rail in front of Rick - wearing a Hiroshima Carp baseball tshirt, brown hair in ponytail. Will be back up at the front tomorrow in same outfit if anyone wants to say hello :)

[BrotherLovesDub]

I have a Hiroshima Carp t-shirt too. Got it from Ebbets Field Flannels. Top choice!

Thanks for the report. I was wondering what was happening.

[amhilde]

Small world - thats exactly where I got this one from! (technically its the boyfriend's, but since he wasn't using it tonight... :) )

I'll be interested to see if they extended the curfew and let them finish the set - hopefully some other reports will come in yet.

[razorpilot]

Just on train home. They extended the curfew and played full set. Almost rip-corded during the 'break' but glad I held on. In the end, treated it like a 30min interval before 'encore'. Anyway, was awesome, Jaunita and Dirty Club were particular highlights.

[markreed]

We were downstairs until the fire alarm, and it was Idiot Soup in there, lots of people walkinga round - it felt like dancing in a corridor.

After the fire alarm we had the balcony almost entirely to ourselves and that was lovely.

[whatmakesustick]

Wow, I forgot how good Juanita was. Thats when it took off for me.

If Rah and I Exhale are fun tunes, but I wonder if there is a better place for them in the set. I Exhale into Dark Train didn't really work for me, Having said that, I thought the setlist was amazing and the best it has been for some time. Just a bit of mixing between the tracks would have taken it to another level for me.

The surprise songs from this tour (Ring Road / Minneapolis, 8 Ball, Drity Club, Faxed Invitation) were all great and for us that go to all these gigs, nice to see them mixing it up a little. It's funny that they said they could never play 8 Ball in an Underworld gig (hence it's only outing being the Edgeland tour) - even though some people took it as an excuse for a toilet break or grab a beer, I saw plenty of people joyfully singing along....and happy :)

Why does TMO sound like a chilled out song in my headphones and a techno stomper live. Speaking of techno...Rowla...nice :)

The other new tunes also slotted in nicely. Low Burn grabs your attention with a deep bass / kick drum. It's slightly odd though - it was a bit moody but with uplifting lyrics (be bold, be beautiful). A lot has been said about Ova Nova and Nylon Strung - but I have to say they really held everyones attention and just...worked in the set. Wouldn't it have been great if the backing vocals were live too!

The fire alarm was a pain, but I don't think it made much difference. Everyone (we bumped into) was having a laugh outside in the rain. I was expecting to go back in and get Born Slippy and Rez, but we actually got the whole set including are started King Of Snake! It all added to the experience and having been to quite a few shows (at the Roundhouse alone), will make this one memorable.

I think the crowd was fairly standard for London/Underworld - I thought the atmosphere was better last year the Apollo, but then, I had been on the pop so I can't be sure.

[markreed]

I agree with the sequencing of the setlist. Nice as it was to hear Eight Ball, Faxed Invitation, etc., the pacing was off insomuch as it felt quite pacy, then dipped around Eight Ball and Ring Road and Faxed Invitation. Perhaps creating a fast opening salvo with a mid set lull of slower ones might work. The crowd wanted to dance more than the set allowed them, I think.

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/underworld/2016/roundhouse-london-england-13f00d65.html

[amhilde]

We were talking about the setlist when walking back to the bus stop - the "spoken word" middle bit does start to drag (although if you are in a good place and can bliss out to Eight Ball then great!) and gets a little uneven in terms of fast vs. slow. I would almost move Ova Nova/Nylon Strung to the end after NUXX, move Eight Ball and Faxed Invitation together with Ring Road.Agree that mixing the transitions would be awesome!

What I do like is that they haven't gone the way of some other bands to load the front with new tunes that everyone just sits through to get to a "greatest hits" back end of the set. That gets boring too.

Well, now I wish we had stayed and just hung out in the balcony at the end. Oh well - tonight is another chance. Definitely a better crowd/show/venue/vibe than the Apollo - it seems Karl has way more energy at these shows, so perhaps the dubno material really was a downer for him to perform. FAR less yammering/beer runs/selfie taking at this show than the Apollo too. People around me came out to DANCE and that they did!

[rohanworth]

I take those rare magic moments where I can and last night contained plenty.

Really good vibe among the Underworld knowledgable crowd. Really like the Roundhouse (haven't been in years), nice layout design and atmosphere. And the boys, as the new release illustrates, seem to be going through a renaissance of sorts. Thought they were bang up for it last night, still pushing things, themselves, us - higher.

Loved Rowla, Low Burn, Cowgirl, loads more... interesting to see Ring Road (nice visuals here), Eight Ball too...

So, worryingly slow ambling evacuation procedure aside, just a blessed night. I also preferred it to the Apollo last year... Underworld just seem reinvigorated.

[scary man]

Who was the support?

[amhilde]

No support - pre-recorded DJ "set" from DJ Steve (we noticed it was the same one from Berlin the week before, as I love whatever tune comes on about 8:03 and wish I had the tracklisting!)

[kontakt1968]

Fire alarm was worrying but as Karl noted the roundhouse thankfully let them extend until 11.40 so we got the full set .TMO was great as was juanita , new stuff, greatest hits and for me the interesting stuff was faxed invitation, dirty club , ring road mash up and oh 8 ball does make me feel happy yay
For any dirts going tonite there's the usual merc stall on the first level but after the show there was a girl by the place where you check in your coats just selling the new cd in a little stall about a dozen she had were signed copies for £8! Couldn't resist..:D

[kontakt1968]

Just to add she said they're leftovers from underworld live.com they're the ones not shrink wrapped and look like this

[dirty050505]

Worth noting also for anyone going tonight that UW came on stage about 20:50, not the stated 21:00!

[markreed]

I managed to miss the merch due to the fire evacuation. Wish it was online!

[TheBang]

For Rowla, do they display the words "Crow Lane" on the screen?

[potatobroth]

For Rowla, do they display the words "Crow Lane" on the screen?

is that where the name comes from?!

[TheBang]

Yes:

http://www.lxnen.com/RingRoad

[potatobroth]

Yes

all these years ive been calling it rowla, like "growl-luh". Time to retrain myself.

[markreed]

You aren't the only one...

[darktrain]

all these years ive been calling it rowla, like "growl-luh". Time to retrain myself.

I'm sitting here saying it "roe la"..."roe la"..."roe la" and at the same time this comes on in my headphones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SNLWedsfzM

Wacky.

[crankphoto]

We saw the gig on Thursday, best I have seen them with some great and different tunes on the night. Best for me was Dirty Club, Juanita, Eight Ball and Dark Train. They mixed several tracks differently, and Rez / Cowgirl was really on it, Rick looked right in his element.

The "intermission" was a pain but when they came back, they finished the set on a high. Lots of hugs between Rick and Karl.

When Rick did his solos, Karl exited the stage, and danced by the electronic equipment. Obviously enjoying the music. It was a great night with some laughs, the boys at their best. Would love a recording, especially that mash up track !

Still not got my actual boxed set '100', that is a poor show.

[markreed]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mark-reed/albums/72157666378895155

Here's some photos ....

[khouri]

I'm excited by this setlist but disappointed to see Karl not playing live guitar on tracks like Juanita, 8 Ball and Dirty (Epic? What is Club?). I was just listening to an old live recording of Twist this morning and marveling at what Karl's guitar work brought to it.

[Troy McClure]

Curious as to what type of merch was being sold at the venue. I saw a post from a fan on the UW Facebook page of a 'Barbara, Barabara....' tee from the Germany gigs that looked interesting.

Thanks, Jason

[markreed]

I don't think I saw him play guitar once?

I missed the merch as I was going to get some after but the fire evacuation and restart gave me 10 minutes from the last song to the last train home. There were, from a quick glance black & white t-shirts, CD's, and the £100 box set.

[markreed]

I'm excited by this setlist but disappointed to see Karl not playing live guitar on tracks like Juanita, 8 Ball and Dirty (Epic? What is Club?). I was just listening to an old live recording of Twist this morning and marveling at what Karl's guitar work brought to it.

It's a revamp and update to Dirty Epic which sounds like a bit like the Darren Price mix on the Olympic CD

[amhilde]

Re: merch - there is also the ever-popular tote bag option (UWBBWFASF on it, like the back of the cd), vinyl and cd versions, the box set, poster, the two tshirt options (black and white, fairly minimal) and I think that was about it.

Do we need a roundhouse x2 thread or continue in this?

[King of Snake]

Interesting, when I saw the setlist from the Germany gig I thought "Awesome, looks like they're improvising the setlist again", but it seems this is now THE setlist for this tour as the Roundhouse one is indentical. Also, not a single track from Barking on there. (not that I mind too much, though they should play You Do Scribble again sometimes, that was awesome :)).
Still, looks like a good setlist and looking forward to seeing them in Amsterdam next week!

[DoctorRad]

It's a revamp and update to Dirty Epic which sounds like a bit like the Darren Price mix on the Olympic CD
Not to my ears it didn't (London Friday show), the latter was very sunshine-y major key, this was still quite dark, but more sparse.

[crankphoto]

The merch was fairly standard stuff, black tee with white diamond formation of UWBBWFASF, and a white version with black lettering, a black tee with random looking lines / lyrics, a tote, cd's and boxed sets (so they are finished !)

Dirty Club was a more up tempo / dance version of Dirty Epic, not heard this version totally like this before, was excellent.

Did anyone else think that the vocals after the 'intermission' we're not on point, as though Karl's effects were busted ? KoS #2 (first track back) was off, the next track, Faxed Invitation, the vocoder voice was well off and they seemed to cut that track short.

Still a great gig, wonder what made the alarm go off ? Seemed like they were pushing the envelope on the sound system, when they came back, they were testing how loud it would go too.

[Goaty]

My 2p - Having seen UW many times over the last 21(!) years - this was definitely an excellent and very memorable gig. Maybe it was just that they haven't toured for a while (except the DubNo tour, which was great but an entirely different feel), but everything really came together.

New songs sounded excellent alongside the older material - I'm a big fan of the new album anyway, and the older tracks sounded fresh.

Great to hear Juanita/Kiteless, Rowla, 8 ball, and the new mix of Dirty. Everyone went totally nuts to KoS, especially after the evacuation when they restarted everyone just seemed to go completely nuts.
The set lasted for around 2h 10m, so plenty of time to play some less well known tracks which really made the set flow - it wasn't just a greatest hits set with some new material.

Would definitely love to hear a SB recording of one of the sets from this tour. They seems to be playing the same setlist for each gig, but that's in no way a bad thing.

[DoctorRad]

Would definitely love to hear a SB recording of one of the sets from this tour. They seems to be playing the same setlist for each gig, but that's in no way a bad thing.
Hopefully the Belgian radio broadcast will provide this, although the set may be shortened slightly as it's a two hour slot vs the 2h10 we seem to have been getting thus far...

[markreed]

Not to my ears it didn't (London Friday show), the latter was very sunshine-y major key, this was still quite dark, but more sparse.

I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time!

[Mike]

Dirty Club is simply Dirty with Dirty Epic lyrics.

[beantherio]

How long did they play?

[markreed]

AH bugger. The crowd seemed a bit lost at point, for example, going from curious (Ova Nova/Nylon Strung) to crazy (TMO) to inactive (8 Ball) in 10 minutes seemed little ... weird. Given that PG and Scribble were only played a few weeks ago, it does make sense to rotate those in, I know it's a bit AC/DC but crowd pleasers are fun.

[markreed]

How long did they play?

Normally 2 hrs 10 minutes, but Camden #1 had a 30 minute Fire Break, so 8.50-11.30

[skyscraper101]

We were right down the front by the barrier, slightly to the right in front of Karl.

It was an excellent gig, and I've seen them quite a few times since 1996. Much better than the last one at the Apollo.

I actually thought the fire alarm added something really special to the night. Some of you who were there may have noticed that they bought all the house lights up before they faded down KoS so it was amazing seeing all the crowd in the bright lights jumping around.. Then there was that moment of adventure and uncertainty having to get chucked out into the rain for 5 mins - then suddenly, a large cheer from hundreds of fans as we were all let back in again and the party was back on.

The only pain was having been down the front since the beginning until the evacuation, and then losing our place and having to push back to the front but we found our way back and managed to get back to where we were within 2-3 mins.

On the return, KoS seemed mostly improvised, a bit haphazard, and it reminded me of days of old when anything could happen and they had to think on their feet and no track sounded the same from night to night. Basically everything that I loved about UW from the beginning (I put some of that in the video below).

Highlights for me were Juanita, Low Burn, random re-run of KoS. Ring Road was also excellent - possibly my favorite track of the night. Seeing Rick waving his arms and singing along to the lyrics was also great. He looked like he was genuinely having fun, which was great to see after he wasn't able to perform at Hammersmith last year.

I took snippets of video and edited them together last night. Got bits of most of the classic tracks but not the new ones, for no particular reason. I thought all the new ones were great - especially Low Burn. The only track which seemed a bit out of place was Eight Ball which is a great tune but just didn't seem to suit the flow. I'd have preferred if they did Pearls Girl, and perhaps Moaner instead of NUXX but I can't complain - it was still excellent.

Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z75qMqO6qL0

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/12107036_998665126837536_8088922965384468326_n.jpg ?oh=91240f4ea654bad908d89bbd96f29bcd&oe=5795B836

[skyscraper101]

Picked up a new Barbara shirt too at the Merch stall.

This was one of the two designs which aren't in the online store yet.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/bfYGG9DEW-QfsrEUD1MkEUuukRYLPq8j6wPuAvBoH-i2j5qxIQ5_x9bt8zq4l_KmnfNlcuVjhGLe68LWfkB2grjmMcJO WSEcmklCh-bSaQeE7ddbgQ9c8rvCOoHaaXn6yEfvHp0prDshgPUYk5au9pdk 4096Zl27ChM9ihWa5DoeyAfF53rhY-yWuCKx8xWBCVp7IIyKyI-SOedFvEHS21tsbQg303higCGkUQCzLQsEE5jho7VNZ1vZyyulD cBsBNERxL_RHe656qDc_j56RvwKhW0T8PG5FNl7GjEJEUFNHzb Tgy60GlkcSvfDUtWUPa2I5wrz-NGGVKJ2Jc6QSAT73FNjozhjd1tG4hBwF7HBWotE9HzUzIshzoM RCmwmqUhhetxdWJenZCGDspVMLvEqVRG2VINudcKOx7HQkxrgM XEI3ODqy8yrWHyz62VggRUIiYw56K2pt458LlObSq7zJnelT8C FF3NJRpTEj_uwnR-dC2NsmzchUo11mxbbrxDsLAbiyiSHW8gHsjL4QgnjzgqKbeJjU YSdkwzD8UaECFSKqzDnqezjT0I2VtdPO3Evaw=w480-h639-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3pNfQYc5wCt1qHD5yvd4FPWKihskTx1BXONvucsDPp4HyWbYIv SaNdatpq1EEAJse-99j1rpSc8mJ4d9334rK-l0WkQ3zJ9qrbPxR1DXMUZpF_GzRF5dwJZSJwCq3FolGj985mCS uiLEr3kwDo3jqWQbxw4K-tvX44d3dSWILZgeEra6OfbgHwZOkyB57JEMLFBgYpv63z8TQui xq3BqiXe70i5g7SITzC-pfINxaNXvTOgJpIbb8x0VBwz5hbrqlZ2h8IWuIe2HEJcnIugDQ 0NnZ75_P9iwPfjVuED99M5aYnwbLn878ergJ8wlNWV34APWLzT pURkc0SvqoIBxF2FIKh0AzXoOuyzpbqoT23_0il-gKuAouV_N8XQsvHIY_5YSRXviEf82nfF7swh64qiHUJ46zpRF7 hsLeKufTfze5-2X7p2BT3S_v4T2cIbLgg4U_h6bv3EcqVVqEZEig5Pic3nckpBr yU6A7cU2UY3D-JTPsw8XRUjjhK7SbI8nPCjiS2I3zF6klq7i7ZHLwMujLyD1IZw 95TMDa6mxqECvQbgw_EeVvYxPNkdVi0HAA70CSA=w480-h639-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/i3rt2DJSoN2-7b7ttTrzGFqpoq76T-ame9wy0_FuD0ccFlWRhjeQwc39ch3SndEahu7Kb6tKID0pBd1x h9A9io03gH6s-_x_DrvUrKV0LbjaYncPCfa-LD8be832inKuCOhLSZAhemkZ5xSlqTd5eAydV1KzzAlF1zhTjy yk0RVQnDMN1T8g24vANGz14rPjPNCYui27rR-6g7rZt9RgkhtqS46xlOaeAtDRuccRYKweW01MRh1uSLy4fm-dgvcVECoGC2-5aRDQatShxjGfdNzq9xZS33iPUDN7NMHrPHahJGradh_c747hx Na-DqSll8X-_eqS68SkOT4llUyYglH1MMeLuiso-O7RPnqDftvunD4B6lAFacziHtm-qV2LBvf-a-kqNlNvc6htod6k2S587AiE4NPk7q9onan-gNa3cxsWCAvhvdZCCRC-RCDvoekSzv-SFODX_ZhzLFYo72-UI5EGviOIDGY6vYGcOQJn-ykb4wSaLHmNCQ6qh2Yg9DPiGQItEOky319tIiUDwrmM0_z715s d7ekAkZQBN7JXQqc-54K5fEbOPvGHWJBlgSnKiw=w480-h639-no

[markreed]

I did a scribble about going out again, and danced my legs down to the knees.

http://www.thefinalword.co.uk/content/view/1354/35/