Moby (unplugged) – 15.11.09

I learnt two things this weekend. The first I learnt on Saturday night when I saw a stand up by the name of Louis CK perform. He made an excellent point about how we tend to use words like ‘genius’ and ‘amazing’ in the totally wrong context. I learnt that a little restraint with regard to these words is a good thing. The second thing I learnt was on Sunday evening. I learnt that acoustic music can be nothing short of amazing and that Moby is a genius.

I’ve had my moments with Moby, being more of a fan of his earlier music, you know the stuff I’m talking about, the likes of ‘Play’ and the self titled ‘Moby’. I didn’t really know what to expect of the evening which was to help promote his most recent release ‘Wait for me’.

Upon checking out my movements for the evening, I learnt that it was to be held in the Palace Theatre in London. Built in the 1880’s and set as the home of English Grand Opera, it’s not really somewhere you’d expect a founder of house music to perform. I also learnt that the evening was to hold something a little special. It was the first ever, totally unplugged, acoustic show Moby has done. We were in for a treat.

The rather intimate evening consisted of a stripped-back band line up of only a string section, piano, acoustic guitar and percussion. It bought a whole new sound to Moby. While a lot of his newer work does lend itself greatly to an acoustic set, tracks like ‘Mistake’ or ‘Division’… I almost felt the tracks that even Moby himself mentioned were likely to falter sounded better. Tracks like ‘Go’, a banging techno track converted into a beautiful composition. It was just brilliant.

Moby introduced himself with the line ‘at times the band often looks great and I look like the homeless roadie’. He was referring not only to his band but the two lovely ladies who joined him on stage, Joy Malcolm and Kelli Scarr both feature heavy in a lot of his music. These girls added another dimension,  lifting the ceiling as they hit every note. There were smiles and cries littered through the audience as both girls captured the right emotion for the right moment. It seems Joy takes the stage for anything with a bit of sauce to it, as she said on stage ’she does the happy ones’, and Kelli took her place to pull on the heart strings of the audience. They both did their job remarkably well.

I left the venue with a smile on my face, amazed at how someone who helped pave the way for house music could capture the eyes and ears of the whole theatre in such an elegant way.

Moby started his career back in 1989 playing house music in gay/latino clubs, odd for a man who’s neither gay, nor latino… but he’s come a long way. And seems to thrive on applying his musical talents to everything he can. Before this delightful installment, Moby had smashed a set at Gatecrasher in Birmingham and raced back to fill the 3-6am slot at London’s Ministry of Sound. It’s a credit to his talent to know he can switch between playing to a group of crazed twenty somethings on ecstasy and then treat us to a graceful and satisfying end to the weekend.

Moby’s set list from the ‘Unplugged’ show at the Palace Theatre in London:

Love Song For my Mom
Mistake
Pale Horses
Great Escape
In This World
We Are All Made of Stars
JLFT
One Time We Lived
When It’s Cold I’d Like to Die
Find My Baby
Helpless

Interview – Sophie Heawood with questions thrown in from the crowd.

Why Does My Heart?
Disco Lies
Porcelain
Wait For Me
Slipping Away
Walk With Me
Natural Blues
Walk On The Wild Side
Go
Lift Me Up

Encore:
Honey

1. 

   qilinas_smith says:

   December 26, 2009 at 5:42 am

   I want to quote your post in my blog. It can?
   And you et an account on Twitter?
2. 

   Ryan says:

   December 29, 2009 at 3:24 am

   You are more than welcome to quote our post in your blog, Gilinas. Let us know what your blog is, we’d love to see it.

   Our twitter account is http://www.twitter.com/mewbox

   Cheers