Ah, yes, the Warfield. It's a cozy little venue, and I had an amazing time seeing Underworld. Unfortunately, I had to sit, or stand, rather, through Paul Oakenfold first.

There are a number of his fans still out there, and I can understand why, at some point in time, people might have enjoyed his music and his stage performance. But why ever would anyone choose to see him anymore? He has the same visual setup he has had for the past five years, and I do mean exactly the same, and his music has always been a stale puppet of clearly manufactured energy about as deep as a parking lot puddle.

There were a few moments when I found myself grabbing hold of the connection the people had with his performance, and it was nice to feel the rise as tracks hit their peak here and there. But trance has never been on my list of druthers, and as I sat there realizing I was watching the same floating woman as I had seen back in 2002 when Oakenfold performed after the Chems, I realized that the man was nothing more than a fish out of water gasping for his last breath. The tragedy is sometimes people still drip water over the poor guy giving him the illusion he can still swim.

But on to Underworld.

Immediately this energy entered into the building when they took the stage, but they definitely started off slow. Their performance of Crocidile was fairly good and Leutin was a nice starter, but I wanted them to jump right into it. Regardless of what I wanted, though, I can say with certainty that they definitely have their own thing going on. Take really great, genre defining house and mix in an experimental installment of performance art. Pause for self-reflexive moments and absolute silliness from time to time, and add a few dashes of nostalgia.

There is a certain absurdity to Karl Hyde, the vocalist, but he's sort of like the little brother who you just have to love, even if he's a little annoying. I have to give him credit for pushing the direction of the performance on-stage, because as with all electronic music, it can be very trying to get the crowd to feel like it's little more than a DJ set. But he's quite the showman in his little-kid sort of way.

My favorite moment was him taking a camera and holding it to his own face while singing King of Snake, so all you saw on the huge panoramic screen was a very large face of sweaty Karl... and that could sound so gross to so many people for a variety of reasons...

Back to Underworld. For those of you that know them, they reversed Rez/Cowgirl so that it became Cowgirl/Rez, which I loved. Kittens was definitely a high point, and Dirty was great. As expected, they brought the house down with Born Slippy, and that moment will leave a mark in my mind which will not be soon forgotten.

Where Underworld succeeded was creating an amazing space where even the folks in the balcony were out of their seats riding the Rez waves, and everyone felt connected. Where they failed, it ended up being a bit too experimental, and you felt like maybe the boys should have shown up for practice more often than they did. Visuals were simple, nothing extraordinary, but they worked. And sometimes they worked extremely well.

Underworld was one electronic act I've been waiting years to see, and they did not disappoint. But, of course, all I have to do is wait less than a month and I will be screaming the praises of TomnEd. In the meantime, thanks to the three guys who moved San Francisco in a very good way tonight.

Sounds like the same set they played at Renaissance in June. And they have brought Born Slippy back to a great performance. And Cowgirl/Rez never fails to impress. The trick with any UW show is the fans...you get a truly appreciative crowd you get a great show...you get a gig half attended by people only there to hear those immortal three words and its not a good 'un!

But hey...maybe that is just me being hyper sensitive!

Cowgirl/Rez reversed - sounds good. I'm listening to Everything Everything at the moment (been a week of coincidences!), and I'm so wanting to see them this tour, but can't seem to make any of the UK dates - bloody work!!!

You know, I discovered both The Chemical Brothers and Paul Oakenfold around the same time in the mid-90's. Although these artists had completely different styles, each introduced me to forms of electronic music that I still appreciate today. Although I am not a fan of some of the cheesy trace tracks that are out there, I still enjoy the genre as a whole, especially when the right DJ knows how to mix the tracks. I frequently pick up DJ sets by Armin van Buuren, John Digweed, Sasha, Paul van Dyk, and several others. To this day I still enjoy many of Oakenfold's older sets as well as a few of his often maligned commercial releases.

Love him or hate him, Paul Oakenfold did wonders for all of electronic music. He was the first DJ that was actually living the rock star life, and for a time, he deserved that distinction. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to defend him based on his offerings from the last five years or so. He has become a hack and a sell out. Most of his recent production and commercial work are disappointing to say the least, and it has almost become embarrassing to admit I was once a huge fan.

Like I said, I discovered Oakey and the ChemBros at about the same time. Oakey had major international success and lost touch with what made him great. The Brothers, on the other hand, have evolved and adjusted, kept their standards high, and have recently put out some of their best work with We Are The Night.

I've never seen Underworld live but I do like a lot of their music. Rez and Cowgirl are a couple of my favorite tracks by them. I finally picked up their live CD Everything Everything a few years ago and was blown away by Rez/Cowgirl. It's pretty cool that they are reversing it now to Cowgirl/Rez. Kittens is another one of my favorites and I can certainly imagine it being a high point of a show.

It's cool that 'Pooter had a good time after waiting years to see them. Solid review.

Nice review! It sounds like it was a good night.

I'm not a huge fan of Oakenfold or trance in general, I wouldn't go out of my way to go see him live. However, I do think he's an extremely talented dj/producer and I enjoy some of his older work such as Tranceport (1998) and the original Global Underground New York album (also from 1998) is some of his best in my opinion.

MadPooter, what a great review!! I'm so glad you had a good time at Underworld. Now - bring on Tom n'Ed!!

I caught up with Underworld in 1999 at Coachella after I saw the Chemical Brothers. I was really wiped out and utterly blown away from seeing the Chems (and a bit under the influence, hehe) so rather than fight the crowd, I chilled toward the back halfway up the bleachers. They were an outstanding act, the crowd were really into it and all in all it was a good way to wrap up my first (and the first ever) Coachella. Rez/Cowgirl was definitely a highlight, it got me up dancing - everyone was dancing! And Born Slippy, wow that was amazing!

I'd love to see them again as they're coming to Los Angeles but, it's not in the cards. I'd see them again in a heart beat if I could.

As for Oakenfold, when I worked at Tower Records I sold quite a few copies of Tranceport to electronic music n00bs. It's hard to go wrong with that as it is a good introduction to that type of music. And it has the aesthetics all in the right place. I'm not fond of trance but did go through a period of discovery where I did find it interesting, but it's samey qualities grew tiresome as I found there are more exciting types of music to sink your teeth into. I saw Oakenfold at Nocturnal Wonderland quite a few years ago (2000) and the kids were really into it. I didn't think much of the set, I didn't care for the music (and what was with those Jesus poses Oakey does onstage?), but the kids seemed to be enjoying themselves. I nearly got my eye put out by some e-tranced kid swinging glowsticks on the end of 2 ropes - all part of the experience I guess, he turned out to be a cool guy just getting down and enjoying himself. And I'll never forget the Oakenfold aftermath with the discarded, waning glowsticks and empty water bottles left on the field which made for interesting pedestrian navigation. I've gone on rants and tirades against Oakenfold here in the past but time marches on and I can't be bothered to be negative - all music has its place, and so does Oakey. I just don't give him much thought these days. But if people dig him and people are dancing, it's all good as far as I'm concerned.

Sounds great! (they're my favorite band :D)

I'm not going to get a chance to see them on this tour (can only afford the Chems show in Brooklyn), but I hope they come back again for another go. From what they've been saying on their website, they seem to be really enjoying themselves here in the states.