Shh - say it quietly - Moby. Just whispering his name sparks fear and loathing in the hearts of hipsters everywhere. What is it about him - is it his success? Is it the so-called bastardising of blues music to advance the career of a middle-class white boy? Is it the fact that now that his music has been featured in every car ad that his audience has been infiltrated by the mook demographic? Is the endless self-righteous piety that only vegans can spew forth? Or is it that he is masking his lack of talent with one truly great gimmick?
You party poopers out there would say it's all of the above. But you know what hipster? While there might be problems with him, there are a lot of very right things about him to. For one, he knows how to put on a live show.
All the lovely elements are here - two big ramps for adult adventure fun, huge f-off drum kit, turntables and little front stage bit for Moby to go out and meet his public. Everything goes all phosphate green and 3-piece string section - comprised of three very lovely ladies - play a very lovely lullaby intro to ease us gently into this good night. Moby leaps out - jumping and flailing about to 'Extreme Ways' from his new one, '18'. The bulk of the set is made up of stuff off of '18' and 'Play' his gi-jillion selling last album. But a lot of people don't realise that Moby has been plying his wares to the music business for about 10 years now and to prove it burns through a stonking version of 'Go'.
As he paces around the stage like a nervous host at a dinner party - the rest of the band are having a ball, all dressed in white and sweating buckets. Backing singer Diane Charlemagne proves a virtuoso vocalist hitting both with the soulful grooves of 'In My Heart' as well as the soaring sadness of 'Porcelain'. The show stopper is 'Bodyrock', a sexy lapdance of a tune and the low point is the rather weak 'We Are All Made Of stars', Moby's ode to astrophysics (see? physics IS cool!) whereby the stars are made of carbon and so are humans so ergo humans = stars (um, sure - whatever). For the encore he treats us to a playful cover of the Ramones' classic 'Blitzkrieg Bop' and 'Feeling So Real'.
When it's all over - everyone leaping about, the venue walls dripping sweat - you realise you've witnessed so much more than expected. This may not be music to redefine a genre, it may not even be music to outlive it's frozen moment on a television commercial, but occasionally it hints at greatness. A near-classical dramatic underpins its framing of notes building on rhythms building on vocals. No genius then, but his heart and soul would appear to be in the right place.
