Underworld at Glasgow’s premiere classical venue… and first Glasgow gig in a while, playing cult classic 90s debut album ‘Dubnobasswithmyheadman’. An interesting prospect.
Most interesting was that BM’s ticket said “doors 6.30pm”, start 7pm but on inquiring with the box office about stage times it transpires that “a DJ” is on at 7 and Underworld will be on at 9pm, so plenty of time for the venue to flog booze to ageing ravers at £4+ a pint, very responsible of Glasgow Life, indeed you are pillars of a very moral and upstanding tradition…
Think BM has seen them three times, once at Irvine Beach and twice at Barrowland, seem to remember one of the times was during a fire strike and there was a smoking ban in the venue, several years before it happened for real…
Anyway having established the start time BM trouped into the “Arena Standing” section, already filling up (gig probably around 90% full) and yep it was a bit different to the RSNO or even some of the other gigs BM has seen here over the years, most recently Celtic Connections stuff. It is a good space but just don’t like the carpet (have said it again) and the wood panelling makes it look like more of a library.
Karl Hyde did mention another venue during the gig (Barrowlands, scene of several Underworld triumphs) but maybe The Charlatans got the booking in before them, or maybe having played London South Bank last autumn to start this first album replay thing off, they decided they quite fancied it – the other gigs on the tour are quite mixed with some seats as well, so…
Really don’t know who the “DJ” was, it sounded ok but nothing distinctive, but things started just after 9pm as promised, when Karl Hyde and Darren Price took to the stage. A fairly simple set-up, with Price behind a massive “Solid State Logic” desk and several other laptops beside it, Hyde with a curious desk thing (which may have been displaying lyrics on autocue) along with several guitars on stands and a mike.
The song titles were displayed on the backdrop as they set out through said album, moving up the gears with ‘Dark and Long’ before ‘Skyscraper’ introducing more percussive effects and the first real outing of Hyde’s signature rambling vocal tropes, linking together seemingly disjointed sounds and words into something, or other…
So what are Underworld, or what were they? In the early 90s there was rave, there was some ambient electronic beats and a lot of stuff in between – Underworld seemed able to craft something new, a way forward, that melded disparate elements and mix them with a overlay of English disaffection and melancholy, a very sophisticated sound, with original visual elements as well. And some pop sensibility, albeit from quite an oblique angle at times…
This first album (1993 or early 94) was critically hailed but they hadn’t at this point got much beyond the club circuit. They were however already well on their way when Danny Boyle used one of their b-sides in the soundtrack to a wee film called ‘Trainspotting’ in 1995, and well, the rest is history. After that massive hit and a couple of lesser ones, the sales dried up but the musical output continued and they have never not been in demand for live gigs. Having parted company with early-era DJ/member Darren Emerson, the band is down to Hyde and Rick Smith (present tonight at the mixing desk, not quite fit enough to be on stage after some unspecified lurgy). It was left to long-time collaborator/live member Price to press the buttons tonight.
And most of the audience does appear to date from the 90s era, excitable to say the least and not at all deterred by the surroundings, the seats or anything else – well-behaved though, would have to say, no chucking of pints or anything despite very little security and a low stage.
So on we go through ‘Surfboy’, ‘Spoonman’, showing some of the more varied beats the album mustered, all very ahead of its time, into ‘Tongue’, a very ambient track (albeit the first time Hyde picked up the guitar) which tailed the audience’s interest off a bit, sounds like early Genesis, no really, around 1971.
The key tracks for most people on this album are tracks 6 and 7, ‘Dirty Epic’ and ‘Cowgirl’, when the brooding beat sequences and out-there vocals and samples finally collude to make a sweaty and carnally-charged double-header. ‘Dirty Epic’, with its eventual blues sample, glitches and the rest, soundtracks longing, loneliness and alienation in a way that BM does not think anything else in that era really did – it is a masterpiece and the rendering of it tonight was indeed epic. Themes of technological advance(and this was before tech really took over, don’t think the band even had a website at this time), big brother, deviant sexuality, BM could go on – and the “midnight train to Romford” reference is very funny indeed! And ‘Cowgirl’, well it’s just a a massive adrenalin high, with the promise of more carnality…certainly did the job tonight.
After this the last track ‘Rivers of Bass’ while distinctive, was always going to be a bit of a let-down, but that’s what happens when you play a sequenced set according to an album sequence decided 20 odd years ago.
After this they played ‘M.E.’ a pleasant Kraftwerkesque track but not exactly a classic, followed by their other 90s monster ‘Rez’ – this had the place in a frenzy, the ascending notes which then kick into the main theme are (the Ravey Davey equivalent) a bit like the start of ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ by U2, teasing the audience until they have have to go mental.
Following this it was ‘Bigmouth’, heavy on the harmonica but not really an classic either.
Then a short break and the inevitable encore of ‘Born Slippy NUXX’ – the lights turning on the audience during the opening chords and frequently during the track, and yes it was a sight to see everyone in the whole place completely whipped up – and in between the lights up the place was in darkness as Price laid down some thundering backbeats at what sounded like double the speed of the original.
The band (well, both the guys on stage) did seem pretty chuffed by the overall effect and genuinely moved by the reaction of the audience – Underworld were and still are a class act and this gig cemented their reputation further.