Tuesday, 5/13/97 Chemical Addiction MUSIC: The Chemical Brothers
may not have the charisma of Bono or Gwen Stefani, but their music
and visual magic have fans hooked.
By Mike Prevatt Daily Bruin Staff Concertgoing may never be the
same. The Chemical Brothers, electronica’s most successful artists
in America yet, turned the Shrine Expo Hall into one massive,
rave-like dance club Saturday night with their beat-driven music.
But, most impressively, the much-hyped duo held the audience in awe
for almost two hours with a light show and musical performance most
pop groups only dream of. This show was the first test of
electronic music’s live-show potentials. In Britain, where the
dance scene can easily gather thousands of people for a show, these
shows are the norm as much as rock concerts are to us. Here, DJs
don’t have the personality or stage presence a rock star or rapper
may have, which deters many of them from performing. Plus, most of
the time the DJs work behind a huge sound system, spinning records
and mixing songs together, which don’t make for an appealing visual
performance. Most people would rather spend $10 at a club. However,
the Chemical Brothers had no problem pumping up the crowd. While
dancing behind their "control panel" as they scratched and mixed
and synthesized, the Brothers (Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons) acted as
cheerleaders, getting the crowd to bounce uncontrollably with their
music and still-visible physical exuberance, as well as the light
show. The crowd was diverse, yet not unlike that of L.A.’s
underground rave scene. Many concertgoers, old and young, dressed
up eclectically (one man was spotted wearing leopard-fur overalls;
many wore Cat-in-the-Hat-style top hats) and looked, shall we say
dazed and confused, roaming the pseudo-fairground constructed for
the show outside the Hall (complete with inflatable castles to
bounce on and human gyroscopes). Yet the people who came to party
inside the Hall were all smiles as music thumped from early evening
till early morning. After a long three hours of DJs spinning club
music (including famous L.A. DJ Jason Bentley), the Chemical
Brothers came on at 11 o’clock, much to the relief of an impatient
crowd. Within seconds of hearing the catch phrase from their old
hit, "Leave Home" ("the Brothers gonna work it out") the floor
turned into a tumultuous sea of moving and screaming bodies. Within
a few seconds of that, the crowd lit up in a decoration of
flashing, multicolored lights not unlike that of the Laserium. The
Chemical Brothers essentially mixed music and remixed their songs
instead of recreating the performances highlighted on their albums
(which include 1995’s "Exit Planet Dust" and this year’s Billboard
sleeper, "Dig Your Own Hole"). Their sound of synthesized and
drum-driven beats, computerized improvisations and booming
explosions came in different tempos and rhythms. Their biggest hit
(and a 10-minute show highlight), "Setting Sun," was barely
recognizable, and only until the familiar sonic blarings came
through the P.A. did the crowd scream. Noel Gallagher’s (Oasis)
vocal contributions were distorted beyond recognition, but that
didn’t stop a hyperactive crowd from sweating up a storm. The
visual effects awed much of the crowd as much as the music. What
was perhaps missing in the form of a charismatic singer was made up
for by artwork displayed on the screens and walls – and, of course,
the lights. Coming from both the stage and the soundboard
positioned in the middle of the floor, the lights pounded on the
crowd in a flurry of strobe effects and illumination designs. On
the screens, images of biologic cells, headlights on a freeway and
designs and artwork of all sorts flashed and played alongside the
music. Though many bands use these effects, these images were a lot
trippier and were further highlighted by the lights buzzing around
them. Lights lit up and bounced off of two giant cubes hung from
the ceiling. Except for a five-minute pause 20 minutes into the
show from a blown circuit (which goes to show how much sound and
wattage was used for the concert), the crowd was ecstatic from the
opening beats to the departure of the renowned British duo. Many
songs, including "Dig Your Own Hole," "Piku" and "Don’t Stop the
Rock" had the crowd dancing furiously towards the middle and rear
of the floor, with the fans up front jumping and bobbing about
almost non-stop. "Block Rockin’ Beats," the current radio hit, had
the entire floor jumping up and down much like a Britpop-type show,
helping to create an atmosphere of a rock show perfectly, despite
the lack of melodic pop. The encore came an hour and a half into
the show, much to the crowd’s delight, and this brought the concert
to a close with a show-stopping, 15-minute performance of "The
Private Psychedelic Reel," where the Brothers would amp up the
sound, then bring it down and suddenly blast an explosion of beats,
driving the crowd nuts. It was perhaps the least altered song from
the new album, except for its extended performance, and definitely
the most exciting and mind-blowing part of the show, leaving the
crowd completely satisfied. The duo came out from the machinery,
took a bow, and said goodbye to arena-rock-like applause. The
Chemical Brothers may have used a different musical medium, but all
in all they threw an exciting and skin-tingling concert, erasing
all doubts of electronica’s live-performance capabilities. Despite
the continuous body movement, all eyes focused up front at the
Brothers and the accompanying visual show. Much like what Pink
Floyd’s shows were to the ’70s and ’80s, where ethereal and
hallucinogenics-optional music were augmented by a dazzling visual
overload of lights and images, the Chemical Brothers took those
elements and gave it a ’90s twist. It just may be a sign that
performers like the Chemical Brothers are the true rock stars of
the new millennium. The Chemical Brothers kept the crowd at the
Shrine Expo Hall riveted, even though they were obscured by mixing
consoles and voiceless songs. The two-hour performance, which
proved to be a successful test of electronic music’s live-show
potential, included a light show. Related Links: Astralwerks’s
Chemical Brothers Home Page Virgin Records UK’s Chemical Brothers
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