Today would’ve marked the long-anticipated return of U.K. electronic duo Underworld to Los Angeles. They were originally scheduled to perform at the Shrine Expo Hall this evening. But like everything else from this unfortunate year, Karl Hyde and Rick Smith had to sadly cancel their highly anticipated U.S. tour.
I’m fairly bummed about that, since I had tickets, and was looking forward to hearing some of their newer DRIFT material on stage, as well as revisiting a few of those grayscale golden oldies.
If memory serves, the last time these dance music pioneers were in Southern California was back in 2016 at the Fox Theatre in Pomona, wedged in between two Coachella weekend performances. I didn’t go to that show, since it conflicted with my work schedule. But friends heaped their praises, and I was envious.
However, in all fairness, I did see them the year before, at their practically transcendent Hollywood Bowl performance. Many, many good feels from that night. And that leads me to today’s post.
Let me start with earlier today … I woke sometime this morning, not particularly caring if it was early or late, but nonetheless thinking of things that were once considered normal, and are now noticeably absent from the day-to-day. That’s when I realized that tonight’s would-be Underworld show was one of them.
Sadly, I almost forgot Underworld’s return was supposed to take place today. They cancelled their U.S. tour a few weeks back, and I think I just deleted it from my thoughts, sheerly out of melancholic disappointment and subdued frustration, with a bit of denial thrown in. I guess that’s where I’m at these days. But I digress …
So with the need for a bit of therapeutic diversion, as well as honoring another forcibly missed music opportunity (and there have been quite a lot this year), I’ve dug up a few old snippets of performance from Underworld’s Hollywood Bowl show way back on 06.21.15.
Now, I’m not going to mislead anyone here. Unlike some of the pics I took, this footage is mostly terrible. I’m sitting far back. It’s mostly out of focus. It’s dark, with lots of blown-out strobing. And each clip is truncated to around a minute or so in length.
But surprisingly, with all those strikes against it, the music still sounds great.
And really, that’s all I was going for anyway by featuring these clips. Plus, if you were actually lucky enough to be in attendance, I’m hoping one of these snippets kickstarts at least a little bit of old school rave nostalgia.
In no particular order, other than starting with the better quality clips first, which isn’t saying much, here’s my brief archival collection of Underworld selections from their Hollywood Bowl 2015 performance.
Underworld perform “Dirty Epic” at the Hollywood Bowl on 06.21.15.
Underworld perform “Mmmm … Skyscraper, I Love You” at the Hollywood Bowl on 06.21.15.
Underworld perform “Rez” at the Hollywood Bowl on 06.21.15.
Underworld perform “Cowgirl” at the Hollywood Bowl on 06.21.15.
Underworld perform “Pearl’s Girl” at the Hollywood Bowl on 06.21.15.
And out of curiosity, I was poking around online, to see if anyone had any better captures from this show, and ran across this clip of “Pearl’s Girl.” It’s sourced from YouTube, and looks to be shot from an equally far distance, but with an infinitely better camera.
Had tonight’s show been allowed to continue, in a virus-free world, of course, I would’ve been front and center with some great new Underworld footage for the archives. Oh well … maybe next year … or the year after that.
On that note, I’ll conclude with the setlist from Underworld’s Hollywood Bowl performance on 10.21.15. Honestly, I’m kind of surprised I never included this in any previous entries. Here it is now.
Enjoy!
