IDM Mailing Archive

Chicago,Vic Theatre,13-9-97 Luke Vibert spun sets between each act and before the show. When I came in, he was playing a lot of old-school electro, Kraftwerk, Grandmaster Flash (before I got there), always with a massif hip-hop beat. It didn't get me moving, but it was good listening. Linoleum played and didn't annoy me too much, except when Dylan told me they were singing about god. Vibert returned to the decks with some cheeky acid, at first backed by more mid-tempo breaks, which later morphed into some ethno-jungle (congas and shit, tho I might be hallucinating). The Sneaker Pimps were pretty much shit. The sound was very mushy where I was standing, as was their entire premise. They had sci-fi video loops projected behind them (including Yul Brynner and lots of THX 1138), while the girl actually said "P....M.....S" before the start of a song. She was such a tart :) I was confused by the Sneaker Pimps. Right, Vibert played again, with more acidic DNB, e'en more cheeky. It was okay, but I couldn't get down. Opening acts can't upstage, or something. Richard was out on stage setting up equipment with the roadies well before the start of the performance; nobody really cared, but as soon as the lights went out, the crowd showed some life for the first time that night. In addition to his laptop, Richard seemed to be fiddling with a mixer of some sort. He played many things I did not recognize; I remember Digeridoo, Girl/Boy, Heliosphan, To cure a weakling child, inkey$, that one with the melody that begins with a synchronized backing THUNK THUNK THUNK, and a track with vocals concerning the devil that was NOT Come to Daddy. Oh my god, THE BEARS. They march on stage and the crowd just went insane. The bears took everything to a whole new level. My crew, who are more into FSOL ethno-sampladelica finally saw the light and the word genius was heard more than once. The bears danced, played up to the crowd, fought, humped speakers, humped each other, and eventually fell down and couldn't get up; the girl bassist from Linoleum ran out and jumped on top of them several times. They took a break and made a grand reappearance later in his set. RDJ ripped the shit up. The sound was very warped between songs. It was beautiful. Some guy with a half-shaved head shaved the other half achieving a mohawk. It was brilliant, and the crowd got into it; I was surprised. You could hardly hear the ambient bridge in Heliosphan, what for the cheering and The Vic's resonant acoustics. After Richard left, everybody was still cheering for a long time, and did some very fucked-up things trying to get him back on stage like hooting and intoning "Ri-chard," as if they were calling to a child who is hiding, or trying to throw off a pitcher. The house lights came on and everybody began to leave after a few minutes, but Richard came out after they had closed off the area in front of the stage. I called to him. He smiled widely and I waved as the staff shoved us all out of the building. Ed