2005-04-22 - 1:02

(Made of) Stars

On the concert review front, I finished recaps for Sarah Slean and . . . And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.

Of course, that still leaves me two shows behind, with two more imminent (Sunday and Monday). Of the unreviewed shows, I can say firstly that the Moby/Buck 65 concert was a blast. Buck only got a half-hour set; but he came out more aggressive than I have seen him before, which compensated decently for the compressed time.

Moby, as always, was an incredibly energetic, enjoyable performer. The few twists that he added to his set worked well, most of the new material fit in (although I fear that I will never grow to like "Spiders"), and he really built to a fabulous conclusion.

The Stars show, though, was a definite disappointment. Although the opening acts were rather flat, I am sure that Stars would have killed . . . if not for the shoddy mixing. The vocals were horribly, horribly buried, while the bass was overmixed enough to steamroll all subtlety. Even though singer Torquil Campbell tried desperately to have his vocals raised during the early going, and then proceeded to work his ass off through the remainder of the night, the sound really hurt the show. That said, I don't fault the band at all; and I would see them again in a heartbeat.

J.