Venue:
Aviva Studios, Manchester
Date: 13/04/2024
And so to the shiny new kid on the cultural block, Factory International, now like some enormodome with naming right secured by Aviva. Final cost I gather a whopping £242 million. Danny Boyle opened the thing with something that was not The Matrix: The Stage version but basically was. Now we’re here to see what that money has bought. The main entrance and bar area are like some well-appointed food hall, all chalk boards and stainless steel worktops. The venue itself is upstairs and it is VAST. So vast there is a one-way system of entrance and exit in operation to safely usher 4500 of us around the lobbies and stairs. So vast and high that with the dry ice the ceiling completely disappears and there is the disconcerting feeling of being outside with the lights appearing to float in a black sky.
Underworld (no support) hit the stage exactly at 8:00pm. Onstage is what I can only describe as the rig from the final scene of Close Encounters with Rick Smith as Francois Truffaut. Behind him all round dad-dancer and drift speechifier Karl. Across the back of the stage stretch three enormous screens which offer stylised animations to complement what’s going through the speakers: cityscapes, indeterminate terrain, shifting blocks and bars of colour.
Set one emphasises their more melodic: Dirty Epic, Kittens and a closing three-punch of Mmm. Skyscraper, Juanita and Tin There. The sound is loud and clear without being overwhelming, but to return to the visuals, there’s a zig-zagging line of lights that surely must be a CE3K homage. After thirty minutes break (zero chance of geting to the toilets) we are back with a set stuffed full of their club bangers:Jumbo, Pearl’s Girl, Dark and Long and a moment of true collective euphoria with Two Months Off and its refrain of ‘You Bring Light In’.
If I’m honest then to me that lovely balance that they strike between techno beats and subtle, shifting (or drifting) melodies gets slightly lost in the next section where new track Fen Violet and Border Country seem presented to show us that they might be pushing sixty, but Underworld can still punish you with the beat. King of Snake brings things back into focus – and caused me to think that maybe Beaucoup Fish might be their most consistent album – before the inevitable end. Like Firestarter, Da Funk or Right Here, Right Now this isn’t really their song anymore. Born Slippy has entered the popular consciousness, its ‘lager, lager, mega mega white thing’ refrain sung by thousands who have only the dimmest knowledge of who Underworld are. It matters not, the crowd go wild and we’re sent back into the night sweaty and grinning ear to ear.
The audience:
Hacienda-era ravers like me, with a sprinking of early twenties. Not a thirty-year old in the house. A fair few aphex twin/orbital/Orb t-shirts.
It made me think..
Well my iphone said I did 25,000 steps. Ms Moles half that. Guess I was rocking a bit harder.
Further thoughts:
Sobering to reflect that techno pioneers live can have the thought ‘This might be the last time they tour’ attached to them.
nice review. I saw Underworld for the first time pretty recently, at a warm up show in Bristol before their RAH gig. I think the promoter might have blinded by pound signs, because I’m sure it was oversold, everybody in like sardines, no room at all to dance. I enjoyed them, but I’ll enjoy them more next time.
I was at this one too @Moseleymoles & thought they were excellent. Denver Luna is one of my top songs of the last couple of years & it was a treat to watch live. I had to remind myself that Karl Hyde is about to turn 67. He stalks the stage like a man possessed & his voice is sounding great.
I am a bit undecided about the venue, it was incredibly busy & I watched the bulk of the 2nd half from the back* & it was hard to find any room at all. As you say it is a vast space, but I felt there were too many tickets sold for it, especially as everyone had to exit & leave on one side.
* I moved after some prick decided to put his head into me because I could not move for him! – who needs that at a gig? This is something I have noticed a lot over the last year or so, a lot of people seem to have forgotten how to act & it can make or break a night. As I was moving to the back, a security guy who had seen this had a word with me & stated this was the worst even he had done for arseholes!
Quick disclaimer on this point, I am all for people getting into it & having a top night so it is not me being a miserable old sod, I don’t think….. 🙂
A J-jazz cover of the big hit, anyone?