Underworld: Live @ Brixton Academy

By Rich • November 2, 2008

“Everything. Everything. Everything.” During the Halloween weekend of 1994 I went to my first ever Rave. I was aged 19 and other than listening to some of my brother’s mixtapes, I knew very little about Dance music or the Rave scene. On the recommendation of some friends in the know, we’d all travelled up to Leeds to go a MegaDog which was a kind of touring rave put on by a bunch of proper dreadlocked Travellers. They were quality events the MegaDogs, with all sorts of ‘extras’ alongside the music, such as stilt-walkers, trapeze artists, fire-breathers and (bizarrely) dwarves with water pistols strolling through the sweating dance-floor.

Performing live alongside the DJs that night back in 1994 were (the then little-known) Underworld and a fledgling Chemical Brothers. It was an awesome spectacle with an astouding and futuristic soundtrack that completly blew my mind. Never heard or seen anything like it before. A hell of an introduction to Dance music and one which left me forever changed (I learnt to dance that night, for one thing!)…

So, it was incredibly fitting that here I was 14 years later (almost to the day) marking this special anniversary by going to see Underworld once again, this time at the legendary Brixton Academy in London. It was also fitting that they kicked off their 2 hour live set by mostly playing tracks off their debut album ‘Dubnobasswithmyheadman‘, which has always been my favourite of all their releases. For about half an hour I felt like I was back in 1994 again, sweating on the dancefloor as Underworld performed tracks like ‘Spoonman’, ‘Dirty Epic’ and the all-time classic ‘Cowgirl‘ - only no water-pistol toting dwarves this time around. It was also wonderful to hear ‘Rez’ after all these years too. Superb.

I loved the way that they had the stage set up, with all their consoles and synths turned around so that the audience could see what they were doing, rather than have them hidden away behind a mixing desk. Karl Hyde was a bundle of energy as usual, leaping around the stage in a gold lamé suit and picking up a guitar on key tracks. The light show and projections were awesome and very inventive. Halfway through the set these enormous inflatable pillars rose up around the band and started wobbling around with lights flashing inside them. Sounds peculiar I know, but check out the videos I’ve posted here and you’ll see just how good they looked. Brilliant. As a live electronic act, Underworld are fantastic and I strongly recommend going to see them. Go. Now!