E-Werk, Cologne, Germany
29th May 2011
Moby, DJ Rafik
MOBY in Cologne and support of his new album. That was a show nobody wanted to miss. In fact, so many people wanted to see the show it had to be relocated to a bigger venue. Turns out that were still too small.
DJ Rafik
RAFIK’s career began with him learning how to play various classical instruments like piano, cello or drums. Later one he literally turned to the tables and went to become the world’s most successful Battle-DJ. Aside from his main interest he’s pursuing various other projects.
Music & Performance
The sad thing about his performance was nobody actually took notice. Hidden on a sparsely illuminated stage you hardly saw more than a shape, spinning plates and creating various danceable tunes until the signal for the rebuilding break came and the music stopped. For most of the people it must have been little more than background music for their chattering. At least I couldn’t see anyone dancing to the tunes.
Rating
Music: 5
Performance: 5
Sound: 7
Light: 5
Total: 5.3 / 10
Moby
Very early in his career he landed a hit with the progressive house track ‘Go’ and the album ‘Everything Is Wrong’, which proved he was way ahead of his time and critics as well as fans loved him for that. But bigger success wouldn’t come so soon with him making a statement of disillusion towards the music industry with the punk rock album ‘Animal Rights’ not very well received. The thing to turn the wheel to world success was the album ‘Play’, which even though it’s been a late starter gained global recognition, he continued to gain with the follow-up ‘18’. May 2011 now saw the next musical chapter of the bustling artist dawning with the broken down album ‘Destroyed’. http://www.moby.com/
Music & Performance
With the main act’s performance drawing closer the hall filled to an extend that hardly seemed possible to me when we first entered it. From this point on the difference between standing closer to the stage or at the very .last row in the back was absolutely zero. You could catch a little glimpse of what’s going on up on stage. The first thing you could see was a kaleidoscope of dark colours from the skies coinciding with the ethereal introduction accompanying the band’s entrance. The intro segued into ‘Be The One’ that in its further course encouraged the first people to swing their bines in the heat of the venue. Also the following ‘Sevastopol’ developed a much rockier appearance than on the record, and MOBY’s percussion section in the song revealed his keen sense for rhythm. The everlasting ‘Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?’ overran with melodies and the singer Joy Malcolm’s vocal range came off very well on the spherical track, and would soar up to incredible heights later.
From those rather moody tracks the set went on to become somewhat of a disco celebration with MOBY revealing a dirty secret with him saying he just loves to play disco guitar, and you got to say he’s playing it extremely well while hopping around on stage like a whirling to tracks such as the upbeat ‘Disco Lies’ or ‘Honey’. There was not a single second of doubt that there would be something like an encore to feed the craving people in the packed venue. One of those songs draining the last bit of liquid out of them was the hit single ‘Lift Me Up’ which was the last song we heard after leaving the venue where MOBY and band just proved how it’s done right. Thumbs up!!
Setlist
01. Intro (God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters)
02. Be The One
03. Sevastopol
04. In My Heart
05. Go
06. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
07. The Day
08. We Are All Made Of Stars
09. Beautiful
10. Bodyrock
11. Porcelain
12. Flower
13. Extreme Ways
14. In This World
15. The Right Thing
16. Raining Again
17. Disco Lies
18. The Stars
19. Honey
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22. Lift Me Up
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: 8
Total: 8.5 / 10
All pictures by Marcus Nathofer
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