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| TOURS - 04th July - Congress Theatre - Chicago - USA | ||||||||||||||||
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Photo
Contribution #1
- Unknown |
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Review
#1
- Chris
Gorski Well, This letter/review is about the chicago show of the MoN tour of the best band ever, Orbital. Well my evening started out waiting in the will call line after getting my picture taken in front of the old crappy, Congress Theater. And given that I am a die hard fan of Orbital since I was a wee eight years old (4 1/2 years ago)(Now 12 years old)This was the best day of my life. Well I bursted into tears when the big security gaurd said "And I guarentee you are not getting into this show". So I had to talk to the manager and I GOT IN!!! It started out with lo-fidelity all stars, they were okay, then the great crystal method. But then I went down stairs and fought my way up to the wall to see my heroes, and wow! The Lighting and video display was "grrrrrrrreat!" And I saw them walk out, yay!! The moment I had been waiting for four years finally came... Gee golly I had the biggest smile on my face, I nearly fainted when Halcyon came on, then when there was no tamberenes I was like whoa, no Bon Jovi shit, then like dude I thought it was ending but then the "Got to love" etc... part came. And that was probably one of the few times my dad appreciated satan :) I am soooo glad I got in after all. Well I'd like to thank the manager of the tour or congress theater for getting me in. thats all, I love you guys :) Review #2 - Rob Chauncey Orbital -- what can I say? I'm completely dumbfounded by their presence, creativity and stage wherewithal. The 'Satan' encore brought the house down, but you couldn't hear it because they went on playing. The songs had an original and live touch to them, they were alternatingly heartbreakingly beautiful and adrenaline-rush-dance- craze. You could tell they were laying it all down there for you and they had a zen quality of instrument control/crowd encouragement/sound enhancement. Real professionals, incredible and welcome. If they'd only come around more often. Their stagescape had four three-panelled rectangular screens, rotateable, and their video editing on it was good. They had your standard techno-concert stuff (quick-flashing cycle of commercial products with "Buy Now" below them, etc.), and some cool histograms of what they were playing for you. It was nice and unobtrusive, the main attraction being the Hartnoll brothers and their incandescent 'eyes'. |
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| Review
#3
- CK I just returned back from Chicago a few hours ago and thought I should probably write a review of the first show on the "Community Service" US tour... I'm from Minneapolis and I knew they wouldn't ever come here, so I promised myself 2 years ago that I'd go see Orbital if they came within 400 miles of Minneapolis. Well, Chicago is approx. 400 miles from Minneapolis so when the date was announced, I bought tickets for myself and a friend.... We arrived at the venue with another friend we picked up in Chicago at around 7:00pm, only to see the longest line I have *EVER* seen at a venue. It stretched all down the block on either side of the entrance and all the way down the side streets as well (a good 1500 people out there before the doors opened.) I was amazed - i was expecting maybe 500 people at most! We snuck into line at the beginning by sheer luck and got seats on the right side near the front. The Congress Theater is an amazing venue. It's a renovated old theater with a 4-5 story high dome and a HUGE stage. There was a large pit area in the front for ravers/dancers and then many many seats and a full balcony for the rest of us... The opening DJ spun his set in between sets from an upper balcony. He was decent - typical droning rave DJ... The opening act was Lo-Fi Allstars. I had never heard of these guys, but they did impress me and I'm considering looking for material by them. Crystal Method was better than expected.. I've walked out on their live show twice here in Minneapolis - I just don't like their style... Their light show almost rivaled Orbital's. After much technical difficulty with the video screens and projectors, Orbital finally mounted the stage, around 11:00pm or so. The setlist was (roughly): Way Out, Spare Parts Express, either Lush 3-1/2 or Impact USA (I listen to Diversions so much that I forget which is which), Know Where to Run (AWESOME LIVE!), Halycon, Don't Know You People, The Box, Nothing Left, Style (nice long mix which turned into the BagPipe style).. Then the encore was SATAN, Dr. Who Them, and finally a great 7-8 min version of Chime. I am a DAT taper and managed to sneak my DAT deck and mics into the gig to record... The volume levels, especially the bass, were the highest I have EVER seen for any concert. I have recorded from within 30 feet of immense stacks for 20,000 person outdoor concerts and these stacks beat those! As a result of the ultra-low and heavy bass, my microphone capsules had some minor distortion.. However my recording did come out fairly well and I will upload some samples to Steve to put on the Live Gig page... The set itself was a full 90 mins in all. Highlights included Know Where To Run, Halycon, Dr. Who Theme->Chime, a NEW Live version of Satan, and the Style w/ Bagpipe style mixed in.... The new live version of Satan had some of the guitar effects from the Spawn Soundtrack Kirk Hammet version. Usually I hate that version but the guitar effects were mixed-in in a very subtle manner which added to the over-all greatness of the song......... I must say it's amazing to see 4,000+ people all raise their hands and make the sign of the devil and screaming "SATAN" at the top of their lungs... Just like a good ole rock-n-Roll show.. :) The crowd was great.. The venue supposedly holds 6,000-7,000 and I would guess at least 4,000 were there.... Once the music started, EVERYONE danced... I think alot of people were there just to see Crystal Method but stayed for (and were very impressed by) Orbital... What a great mix of people too! You had scary industrial fans, hardcore Orbital fans, hardcore ravers (saw way too many glow-sticks), and lots of just everyday people like my friend who came with me.... I can't wait for another tour so I can see them again! Review #4 - Mark Schermerhorn The night started off with the low fidelity all stars. They played an average set, the crowd didn't respond too much. Some "light dancing" mostly. Crystal method played next. They played a few new tracks, otherwise it was the same show I saw them do over a year ago. The crowd was really into it, I got stuck in a small mosh pit for a while, and there was a lot of crowd surfing. Orbital started their set at around 11:30. They were wearing their headlight hats or whatever you call them, which I thought was really cool. The set looked the same as the pictures I've seen on this site from the shows in England. The visuals were great. As far as I can tell they did the exact same set as the sets performed in England (at least the last few shows). I thought the set was incredible. I thought the bass was a bit high but in a theatre that size I suppose it was necessary. It was so hot and I was dancing so hard that I think I ran out of sweat. Most of the tracks sounded great. I was a bit disapointed with "way out" and "I don't know you people" (I think they cut off the end of the latter?). But most of the tracks, especially satan, chime, nothing left, impact, even dr. who were incredible. You really have to see them live to understand. The only thing that truely bothered me was the fact that the crowd danced harder to crystal method's set than orbital's. Orbital has 100 times as much talent. This tour IS a very "commercial" tour...maybe it attracts those who don't know much about orbital and simply respond to big steady beats. I'm not sure. I'd like to hear comments from the rest of the shows they do in the US. Still....it was an incredible evening :) Review #5 - Brandon Invergo well, i just got back from the chicago show, and all i can say is damn! that just ruined any other concert i'm ever going to go to. lo-fi allstars are ok, and get you kinda goin, and crystal method actually put on a pretty good show (anyone who saw them before and said that they sound exactly like the cd only louder will be pleasantly surprised; there was a little improvisation or additions or whatever, and even some new songs) as for orbital, the playlist was something to the extent of this, though it may not be in exact order: way out, spare parts express, impact (with first and second parts flipped), know where to run, halcyon (bon jovi and belinda carlisle stuff included), i don't know you people, nothing left (more or less based on part 2), the box (this was great, it got a real good, dancey 4/4 beat at the end), style (this went from the album version to big pipe style), satan, dr. who and chime i think that's everything. oh, a warning: since the other bands are crystal method and lo-fi allstars, expect a horrible crowd. there was moshing, jumping up and down, and crowd surfing. i just wanted to yell "this isn't a fucking rock-show!!! dance, goddammit!!!" it's kinda hard to dance (even in my sophmoric way) if someone keeps ramming into you and shoving you. and now the great part-> don (he was on the list - snivilisation@juno.com) and i met and talked to paul, he signed my halcyon cd and don's satan (III) cd and also gave them to phil to sign. mehul also got some stuff signed, mostly MoN stuff i think. paul also had a video camera with him and recorded us a little. steve, if you see this, we're the ones who snuck into the theatre really early during a sound check around 2:30. damn...this just made my year...signed cd...picture with paul...wow |
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