Moby
Live @ Fiera della Musica, Azzano X - 09.07.11

THE REVIEW

I went without even knowing if I would be able to get back home, and it was worth it. I don't know if you are familiar with Azzano X. It's a small town in the province of Pordenone, a few kilometers from Veneto, surrounded solely by cornfields and sparse little houses, served only by a private company's bus that shuttles from Pordenone to Portogruaro from seven in the morning till seven in the evening, excluding Sundays. I never would have thought of reaching this poorly connected place if it weren't for the fact that I won two tickets to the concert on July 9th: Moby + A Certain Ratio. So, a friend and I decided to set off on an adventure, aware of the fact that a general train strike was declared for Sunday.

La Fiera della Musica is practically a record fair/festival organized within a sort of multifunctional student center. Shortly after settling in front of the stage, the opening act A Certain Ratio starts, an indie/post-punk band from the '80s that ranges from jazz to funk and psychedelic and experimental electronics. Unfortunately, the band is forced to improvise quite a bit during the concert, as a couple of total blackouts at the system leave the band acoustically improvising samba pieces. The band plays for about an hour, and then there is a long wait before seeing Moby and his band on stage.

After countless soundchecks, the lights go down and the intro of God Moving Over the Face of the Waters begins, and in all its melancholic poetry welcomes Moby and his musicians, who start with a house version of It’s Raining Again. Moby on stage is versatile and professional. He doesn't stop for a moment, moving from guitar, to bongos, to keyboards with incredible speed. The band accompanying him, composed almost exclusively of female members (a violinist, a keyboardist, a bassist, and an excellent singer named Joy Malcolm who proves to have an extensive vocal dynamic) as well as a singer look-alike as the drummer. The band mixes and reimagines Moby's great classics like Honey, Why Does My Heart Feel so Bad, Porcelain, Honey, Disco Lies, and Go in a continuous form that seeks to engage the audience more by focusing on the live aspect in a very direct way. Noteworthy is a good version of We Are All Made of Stars done in a '70s dance version. Moby proves to be a lively character on stage, as well as a good guitarist. He doesn't give up on his DJ past at raves with a long final jam session on the notes of Feeling so Real, his flagship in the early '90s. Moby urges and thanks a somewhat stationary audience, perhaps prepared for a more ambient show, which only gets excited towards the finale, on the chorus of the hit Lift Me Up. The musician also proves to be an excellent rocker by covering the usual but never boring Whole Lotta Love in a version that starts almost bluesy and then becomes epic. An excellent live show made with great lights and music lasting nearly two hours, varied and engaging, which forgoes the soundtrack-like sounds of recent albums to deliver to the audience an excellent sum of his greatest hits.

In any case, we are still not on the highways of Friuli. By a stroke of luck, we managed to get a ride home, for anyone still interested in knowing what happened to us.