Scanning the Royal Festival Hall crowd before this gig to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Underworld‘s dubnobasswithmyheadman, you’d be forgiven for questioning whether the mostly 40-something audience had turned up to the wrong event. Yet look closely and it’s easy to spot the 90s rave veterans in their Adidas Gazelles, smiley face t-shirts and bomber jackets. And once the lights go down and the deep bass line that opens ‘Dark & Long’ reverberates around the hall, any doubts that this crowd is here for Underworld are dismissed instantly, as people rise from their seats to dance in the aisles, on the steps, and any other areas that annoy the regimented stewards.
The RFH is an odd choice of venue, given its staid atmosphere and seated arrangement. The sound is also far too quiet: you can actually have a conversation without raising your voice. Despite the lack of volume, the band reproduce a faithful note-for-note version of dubnobass… And while Karl Hyde is no longer the energetic techno Iggy Pop he was back in the nineties, he doesn’t need to be: the audience are so lost in the tunes that they pay little attention to what’s happening on stage. ‘Cowgirl’ is the first highlight of the evening, and sees people rush towards the foot of the stage to be closer to the speakers and lose themselves in the “I’m invisible… I’m invisible / Everything, Everything…” refrain. Magic stuff.
Underworld bring dubnobass… to a close with two of the mellower songs on the album, ‘River of Bass’ and ‘M.E.’, before the mighty ‘Rez’ provides the second highlight of the night. They follow up with rare track ‘Minneapolis’ (which bears an uncanny similarity to the theme from Miami Vice), before a technical problem causes a halt in proceedings. Fortunately, the wait is brief, and the band spark back to life with ‘Dark & Long (Dark Train)’; “That one off Trainspotting” as the man next to me tells his pal. Next comes ‘Bigmouth’, complete with Karl Hyde blowing into a harmonica, and then they’re off. A couple of minutes pass before they return with ‘Born Slippy (NUXX)’, which sees the masses shouting “Lager, lager” back at the teetotal singer (one hopes with a sense of irony). Mega.
(Pictures courtesy of Victor Frankowski)
Paul Sng
Paul Sng
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