The Collegian

Issue date: 9/11/07 Section: Detour

Media Credit: J. Harry Painter

Media Credit: J. Harry Painter

Media Credit: J. Harry Painter

Not every trance act can pull off an amazing live show without feeding its audience ecstasy. It's hard to expect, of course, when an act is armed with little more than a set of turntables and some lights. Luckily, Underworld is one of the few that can, and did last weekend in the first of two consecutive shows at The Warfield in San Francisco.

The aging English electronic group, who wrote the soundtrack to Danny Boyle's latest film Sunshine with composer John Murphy, is best known to the general public for their song "Born Slippy .NUXX," which appeared in Boyle's 1996 film Trainspotting.

But they deserve more fame than they have, and perhaps if they had started playing 20 years later than they did, they could have achieved such fame. With today's increasingly electronic music scene, who knows where Underworld could have been in another 20 years.

One element that gives Underworld's live show an edge over some other electronic artists is that they not only have a vocalist, but actually play instruments on stage. And it's a good thing, since Karl Hyde is one of the most energetic performers I've seen despite his having lived 50 years on this earth. Dancing around like an inebriated grasshopper on stage, Hyde puts fellow dinosaurs Mick Jagger and Sting to shame.

He made all the difference, too, because his live renditions of such heart-thumping tracks as "Cowgirl" and "Two Months Off" added the extra vigor necessary to elevate the show above "studio album played really loud with cool video and cool lights in background (see below)." It also didn't hurt that he played guitar and fellow founding member Rick Smith played live keyboards-although it was hard to tell at times what was live instrumentation and what was played directly off the record.

Underworld's recently released single "Crocodile" was a major highlight, giving us a promising preview of their upcoming album Oblivion with Bells.

The show was enhanced by, along with the obligatory smoke and intriguing use of lights, an entertaining video. We were treated to a live video game session, featuring old-school favorites Asteroids and Pong, as well as unnecessary footage of one of the band members posing in his tighty-whities.

It only got better once "Two Months Off" came on, as the crew unleashed some rocket balloons, upon which Hyde would later goofily bang his head.

Underworld's performance followed a one and a half hour opening show by well-known English trance DJ Paul Oakenfold. Oakenfold is not one of those blessed few exciting live trance acts. I suppose Oakenfold didn't do anything wrong, though, besides looking like he could have been chowing down on a Sourdough Jack while his music dragged on and it would have affected the show very little.

Q, a British music magazine, once named Oakenfold one of "50 Bands To See Before You Die." I disagree. I could have died a happy man without having experienced one bit of him. I couldn't, however, have lived a fulfilling life without having witnessed the greatness of an Underworld live show.

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