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August 01, 2001
Originally posted here on Ars.
Originally posted here on Ars. Here it is again... updated and stuff. =)
Well, I was just at Area:One yesterday at Shoreline in Mountain View. Got there kinda late with Amanda-- started at 3:30pm, we didn't roll in until 5pm or so. Darned meetings at work lasted until 4pm for her.
No one had posted a schedule of times and appearances by artists on the web- not an accurate one anyway- so the first order of business was to see who was performing and when. The "Focus tent" was all DJ's... Timo Maas, Paul Oakenfold, etc. Stayed there for a few minutes-- Timo Maas kicked *ss, but we were there for the main stage performances so we left. Didn't even try to see Oakenfold, the tent had to have been PACKED when he was performin. I remember him in LA... Area:One could only have been worse!
Main stage was The Roots at 5:15-6:15, New Order 6:45-7:45, Outkast 8:15-9:15, and Moby from 9:45-11:00. Rinocerose was probably before we got there... and I don't think Nellie Furtado was there, despite what the "artist page" on the website said.
I had no idea who The Roots were. We figured walking around was kinda stupid, and it turns out The Roots were pretty good. I'm not familar with them, but the stuff they played was very good. Surprising in its diversity and a DAMN good drum set. I was amazed. I wish I could say more, but I haven't looked them up yet...
New Order was next. It was creepy seeing hordes of 30+ and 40+ year old men with British accents in the crowd jumping up and down, 100x more excited than I was (and I was about ready to jump out of my skin. When I heard the opening lines to Regret I thought I was going to explode...)... anyway. New Order, as someone here said (Rex F., was it?) basically sucks live. They jumped around on stage and unfortunately all their songs were either already high-energy stuff like Bizarre Love Triangle, Blue Monday, Temptation, Touched by the Hand of God, and Regret... or it was remixed to be high-energy, like True Faith. Played some stuff off their new album too. It was good... they played for over an hour... but it all sounded the same. Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart was a NICE surprise, though. I was fully prepared to pay my $85 to see New Order and that was all... yeah, it would have been worth it ONCE to do that.
Blue Monday was their encore. It was good. Regret... I mentioned earlier. uNF. It was good. Stuff like True Faith is what was disappointing. The last song from their new album was good, earlier stuff was kinda meh. Dreams Never End (I think that's the name) was good too. The harmonica-w/piano keys kicked butt. That jumping out of my skin thing? Yeah, that again. It was sweet. Despite the overall disappointment of the set, being a New Order fan... well, I think I'm incurable!
Fortunately things only got better afterwards. Already exhausted from New Order-- jumping and yelling for an hour was tiring.
Outkast... well... WOW. Very elaborate set. Outkast and another rapper whose name I never learned were on stage, plus a huge crew. It was GOOD. Energy level was incredible. They played some crap songs (the Sarumas Jackson (sp?) song... ick) and some very good ones (Rosa Parks! Talk about old school!)... some were pretty slow, r&b type stuff too-- I didn't know Outkast or the other guy present did that.
Finally, Moby. Already tired from New Order and Outkast, I spent another hour yelling and dancing. Played some rave stuff, what sounded like Rhapsody in Blue, Body Rock, and lots of other stuff. Insane lighting and laser show work. I have a horrible memory for names, but the female singer he works with made for a few incredible songs. Moby was polite too... or maybe he was just trying to rile us up with "thank you, thank you, THANK YOU" after each song. The lines "It's a beautiful evening, so I'm going to play a beautiful song" lead to another great song whose name I can't remember either (was it that rhapsody in blue sound-alike song?)... Area:One was never spine-tingling like when I saw Erasure a few years ago... but the experience was amazing. WOW. Gotta go see Moby in concert again!
Got raped for a t-shirt afterwards too. I needed a break from my computer, car, and techie shirts... tempted to buy a New Order: Get Ready album t-shirt, but they were out of stock of XL and the Area:One road sign shirt was much more colorful. $27 for a stinkin' 2-color shirt from New Order, or a full-color shirt from Area:One? =P And I'm gonna see Depeche Mode in 2 weeks... shoot.... I think I may die from exhaustion.
Hmm, I wonder if Amanda is still deaf from last night... at least her time in San Jose was fun. I hope!
Off to pick up my little sister from dance lessons.
Posted by brian at August 1, 2001 07:50 PM