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[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.