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Thunderbird Stadium, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (2001)
Area: One in full-on rave mode
Choosing between DJ sets and live acts proves to be a fun exercise in trying to have your cake and eat it too
Kerry Gold Vancouver Sun
The rain may have dampened the 12,000 or so bodies in attendance, but it couldn't drown out Area:One, which was basically a marathon dance party that stayed in high gear at Thunderbird Stadium.
The summer festival, brainchild of electronic artist Moby, turned out to be two concerts in one, and it lasted for eight hours. Inside the stadium, Rinocerose, the Roots, New Order, Outkast and Moby played 40- to 90-minute sets on the main stage. Outside the stadium, high-calibre DJs Juan Atkins, Timo Maas, the Orb and -- the biggest draw of all -- Paul Oakenfold held court in a tent that swelled beyond its capacity of about 3,500.
France's Rinocerose started things off at close to 3 p.m., too early to enjoy the throng that dribbled in and finally filled the place by 5 p.m. The five-piece band rocked out on electric guitars against taped layers so attuned to the spirit of vintage disco, the atmosphere begged for a light show and dance floor, as opposed to raingear and tarp carpet. In keeping with the theme of the day, the bass was propulsive enough to drive your liver up against your lungs.
Word had it that most members of the Roots got stuck in traffic, which delayed the show and ultimately cut their set short by about 15 minutes. The human beat box that is Rahzel got to the stage first and kept the crowd occupied with a 20-minute set of his amazing vocal skills, once again making impossibly real scratching and live instrument sounds with only his mouth. By the time rapper Black Thought showed up and joined the stage, the Roots dove straight into its soulful rap -- too short, but sweet all the same.
The men who helped start it all, New Order, brought things full circle with a highlight set studded with the new guitar-driven material off their upcoming album, including Turn My Way, on which Billy Corgan sings harmony. Frontman Bernard Sumner included a hefty amount of retro fare, returning to the synthesizers and giving Corgan little to do off in his corner of the stage. Actually, Corgan didn't contribute much in the way of performance, dressed sedately in big black hat and clothes, and seemingly devoted to making as little of an impression as possible. The old, familiar beat was back on songs like Love Will Tear Us Apart, dry ice escaping over the stage and military drum-machine riffs charging from the speakers, transforming the atmosphere into an '80s disco at the peak of that period's cool.
Claustrophobics would have lost it in the DJ tent, where a gridlock of sweaty bodies made moving, never mind dancing, impossible. Onstage, the foggy silhouettes of programming duo the Orb composed a dense soundscape artier than preceding DJs Atkins and Timo Maas, whose similar techno and house styles were geared toward dance more than observation. Mind you, the tent was comfortably spacious during their earlier sets. When Atkins and Maas played, the tent was truly in rave mode, people dancing beneath video screens and lights, others sitting cross-legged on the grass floor. It was a more enjoyable atmosphere that didn't last. After all, raves are about having extreme amounts of fun, not suffering heat exhaustion.
While the party raged on at the DJ tent, hip hop's fun boys Dre and Big Boi of Outkast brought the main stage crowd to a roiling, partying boil of its own with infectiously boisterous songs like Ms. Jackson and Bombs Over Baghdad. With the most elaborate set of the day behind them (what appeared to appropriately be the throat of a tornado), the outrageous rappers caused the stir they've been raising consistently on this tour -- basically hijacking the entire event with their self-deprecating good humour and brazen brand of theatrics, and warped-speed combination of swaggering rap, soulful balladry, gospel inspired rhythms, Broadway production and moves to rival James Brown. The large crew was backed by a couple of female back up singers, and a mob that included power-chord guitars and clothes straight out of Lil' Kim's wardrobe (worn by the men).
The most difficult part of the day was trying to divide time between Outkast and Oakenfold and then Moby and Oakenfold, whose conflicting sets made it a frustrating choice. For his part, the always hyper Moby continued with his electro-acoustic soul ballads and rock compositions from Play, and fleshed it out with a string section and big-voiced singer Diane Charlemagne. He also paid homage to his early techno days with bursts of older material, winding the day up perfectly, with his personable presence, stellar band and ridiculously infectious material.
If Moby was hoping for a shared experience between the DJ sets and the live acts, he'd attained the exact opposite. Area:One, at least Thunderbird Stadium, proved to be a fun exercise in trying, but failing, to have your cake and eat it too.
And while the tent has been a source of controversy at previous shows on the tour (too many people, too little room inside), Moby's efforts to improve access by opening some of the tent's side panels, would have been a good idea -- unfortunately, it was raining.
Source: Vancouver Sun |
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