Amon Tobin In London

Where to start, I had seen Amon Tobin years ago at New City Suburbs in Edmonton throwing down one of the most memorable sets I had been able to witness at the time. I even got to meet him in the VIP room because my friend at the time was working at The Drum Shop, they had lent the equipment for the show giving VIP tickets as a thanks I got to tag along.

When I heard that he was going to be playing in London, I got Danny on the internet to buy tickets to experience the show that I remembered. What I had forgot is that over time artists change to adapt or play to the crowd. I believe the word 'modern' is what he was going for.

Below is the a video I found of the Canadian pavilion rendition of the projectors on the cube structure that I saw at the Shanghai expo in 2010. 

To begin with instead of a traditional dj on the stage he brought a new but seen before 3D visual aid to the stage. I'm not writing it off completely but we have all seen visualizations on media players that are all psychedelic and very mesmerizing. Now he has added a live performance...yes yes it was timed to his music.

When he first came onto the set I was a bit wowed by the size of his visually stimulating stage cubes but the music that he decided to play for the first hour was disappointing. It wasn't nearly as melodic as his past work, it was slow inconsistent sporadic sounds. I am a huge fan of IDM but when you attend a show at HMV forum fitting 2350 you expect something you can dance to. The first hour of his set you learn that he plays from within the structure, people applaud their sensory overload with strobe lights in your face and short bass lines. Now people ask yourself would you rather watch a music video like The Wall or would you rather stand that bored stiff (smoking their joints) waiting for the moment when you can break out into that flail tearing up the dance floor. I don't think a single person had the opportunity to break a sweat.Cept for the naturally sweaty people.

I personally thought that after an hour when he escapes his 'dj booth' to take a bow and take in the huge cheers boosting his grand idea that his set was over. Luckily he has a small redeeming factor for his set was he stepped back in a played another 15 minutes with some emphasis and cut his set 15 minute short. Only playing from 9pm-10:15pm his set was over and I felt like there was a gaping hole that was never filled.

BUT he will always have a place in my musical Rolodex for Mission.