The Orb and The Chemical Brothers kicked off their US tour in Dallas before a rather tightly-packed crowd at the Bomb Factory, and proved that the 'next big thing' has already connected with the public.
Clearly enthusiastically oversold, the Bomb Factory hosted a mainly quite young, very mixed crowd - eighties Bauhaus graduates in leather pants to seasoned ravers to hip-hop kids to at least one poor bugger in a Stetson and Wranglers.
The doors opened at 8pm, The Orb hit the stage around 9:30, and The Chemical Brothers weren't on until 12:30, so it was going to be a rather long night for anyone who hadn't come to dance. An hour of rather ordinary techno enticed few to the dance floor for the first hour.
It took a while for the crowd to get into The Orb - perhaps a combination of the sardine-tin atmosphere and The Orb's mix of ambient and dance. Orb maestro Dr. Alex Patterson hunched down in his pyramid for close to two hours, mixing tracks from new release Orblivion with classic material from previous outings. The usual bizarre projection images were beamed onto the screens, and a particular highlight was a version of "These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things" sounding exactly like the Julie Andrews original, barring the highly sexual lyrics. By about halfway through the set the crowd was bobbing up and down enthusiastically, though no sign of substance-assisted mad dancing yet.
An hour intermission with some bog-standard techno fare, and then the bright white searchlights hit the crowd.
"Brothers gonna work it out" said the screen and the speakers. And they did. The Chemical Brothers appeared behind their equipment banks and kicked straight into a "Leave Home"/"Block Rockin' Beats" mix. The crowd went nuts, the whole place began to move, and that's the way it stayed for the next 90 minutes or so. The particularly animated Brothers (bouncing, clapping, jumping) kept the crowd moving to a virtually continuous mix, showcasing latest album Dig Your Own Hole, and including tracks from the debut Exit Planet Dust. Strobes and searchlights played over the increasingly active audience. It's a stripped-down sound live, abandoning some of the studio nuances for straight-up drum n' bass, and it does what it's designed to do. A sweaty and happy crowd by the end of the evening. If the Brothers hit your town, don't miss it.
