Modulate This! - Electronic & Experimental Music Tech, Technique, & People

Show Report: Duran Duran Plays 1STBANK Center Broomfield (Denver)

Duran Duran played a great show last night at the1st Bank Center in the Denver (suburb of Broomfield which is about 15 minutes from Boulder). To put it simply, the band sounded fantastic, Simon’s voice was strong, and the mix was fantastic and I could clearly hear all the players including Nick Rhodes’s synths. I was a bit far back, but it looked like Nick was playing the gear noted in this recent Keyboard Magazine article:

Stand 1:

• Korg Microkorg
• MOTU MIDI Timepiece
• Roland V-Synth GT
• Alesis A6

Stand 2:

• Roland V-Synth GT
• Kurzweil K2000

Prior to the show starting the twitter hashtage #duranlive was displayed and selected tweets were scrolled on the screen. Here was my stream with a few tweets and :^)

The set list was a nice mix of past hits and new material which the smartly peppered throughout the set. The new material sounded great and included tracks such as “All You Need is Now”, “Girl Panic!”, “The Man Who Stole A Leopard”, and “Leave a Light On” which they are promoting as their next single.

The band played about two hours and finished out the set with an encore of “Wild Boys” with a bit of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax” spiced into the break followed by “Rio”. Songs missing in action from the set were “Girls on Film”, and “Save a Prayer” but I’ve seen videos of them playing these this year so I’m sure with such a large catalog they rotate songs every night.

I took some photos with my iPhone 4 and placed them in a Flickr set.

There are plenty of tour dates left in the US and then they head off Brazil then the UK. If they are heading your way I recommend you check out this show as you’ll get to see a well rehearsed iconic band at the top of their game!

See past show reports on Modulate This!

Mark Mosher
Electronic/Experimental Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Synthesist | Composer | Keyboardist | Performer

Synth Geek Blog: http://modulatethis.com/
Artist Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com

Show Report: Gary Numan at the Gothic in Denver 10/28/2010

As part of a 16 city tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Pleasure Principle album, Gary Numan played the Gothic Theatre in Denver on October 28th, 2010. I finally got around to organizing photos from the show and thought I’d offer a show report.

First off the Gothic is just a fantastic venue. The first shot above was taken from the top balcony and gives you a sense for the number of people in attendance. Also, it illustrates the minimalist LED lighting rig. They had LED light columns. On the columns there were larger LED spots that were driven by motors. The lights could produce any color, chase and strobe. Mix this with continuous fog machine action and you got an incredible light show without any projected or LED video displays.

If you’ve never seen Gary’s recent performances, you might be surprised that learn that he’s primarily not a nostalgia act. He has continued to evolve, write, release albums, and perform - and these days is much closer in “vibe” to the dark industrial feel of Nine Inch Nails. I personally really like his more recent work as much as the classic work. The venue was filled with fans of all ages who seemed to know every song regardless of age which I think speaks well to Gary’s body of work.

Part 1 – The Pleasure Principle
The first half of the show they played songs from The Pleasure Principle out of album order. On the back line were Richard Beasley on Drums, Ade Fenton on Keys (very cool), David Brook on Keys. In the front line, Tim Muddiman on bass, Gary Numan on Keys and vocals, and Steve Harris on Keys.

Steve Harris and Gary Numan played Access Virus TIs for this segment of the show. The rigs in the back line looked like MIDI controllers driving virtual synths and rack gear. It sounded absolutely incredible and the wall of synths were super warm. The arrangements were freshened up a bit, and the band was really well rehearsed and the crowd was really into it. They finished this segment of the show with “Cars”, which from an energy point of view was a great idea.

Part 2 – Songs from Jagged and More
When the band played the last note for “Cars” the stage went black and in like 20 seconds roadies removed the two Virus TIs and when the lights came Steve Harris was wearing a guitar and Gary just had a mic. The energy of the show went through the roof as the band drove into the newer harder material.

They pretty much just were kickin’ ass and takin’ names from this point out and just played like maniacs and quickly moved from song to song without talking to the audience.

I can’t remember everything they played (I was too busy being immersed in it all to note the set list), but they did play some of my favorite newer tracks like “In a Dark Place” and “Jagged”, “Pure” and “Halo”. The also slipped in a few older tracks like “Are Friends Electric” and rocked them up.

Final Thoughts
I saw Gary Numan when he came through Boulder in 2006 and played almost all new material. I appreciate that he’s kept growing as an artist and that he doesn’t want to be known for just the classic tracks. That being said, I enjoy this show immensely. Going from the classic to the new material worked really well as it got the crowd engaged from song 1 and kept them that way all the way to the end. Young and old, most of the crowd was singing along.

This was one of the best concerts of 2010 for me and I highly recommend you catch Gary in the future if you get a chance.

More Photos
I took a lot of shots with my iPhone 4. Use the embeeded plaer below to view my favorites from the show or checkout the set on Flickr

Links

• Gary Numan’s Official Web Site
• Official YouTube Channel

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

Show Report: Howard Jones & Duncan Sheik at the Boulton Centre for the Performing Arts, NY 10/22/2010

Last Friday I attended Howard Jones concert at the Boulton Center or the Performing Arts in New York. Here are a notes from the show.

Duncan Sheik
Duncan Sheik was the opening act. He sang and played his own accompaniment on acoustic guitar with some stories in between. Note - Duncan collaborated on Howard’s song, Someone You Need, and performed joined Howard's 25th Anniversary concert at the indigO2. Of course I enjoyed the hit “Barley Breathing”, my favorite song was “The Tale of Solomon Snell” off of his latest album Whisper House. It was  was quite fitting for the Halloween season. Sheik’s acoustic set offered an excellent contrast and complimented Howard’s show well.

Howard Jones

Howard performed in an Electric 3 piece band configuration with Robbie Bronnimann playing keys, doing live arrangements and sequence playback, and live mixing with Ableton Live; and Jonathan Atkinson on electronic drums.

The set list was an excellent mix of classic Howard Jones songs with newer songs from recent albums Revolution of the Heart and Ordinary Heroes mixed in.

One thing I really liked about this show was that although a lot of the songs were from Howard’s classic catalog, the show was not a “nostalgia act”. The arrangements were fresh and the performances were tight and had a vitality to them you could really feel.

Having Robbie doing the heavy lifting with Ableton Live and live mixing freed up Howard up to focus on singing, playing and interacting with the crowd. It’s clear Howard is a seasoned artist who continues to take performance seriously and really connects with the audience. Jonathan Atkinson’s drumming also brought a human groove and interesting visual element to the performance.

My favorite song of the night was “Equality”. It started off with Robbie doing a real-time jam with all sorts of beat slicing using Novation Launchpad.

Later in the show, Duncan Sheik came back on stage and he and Howard did a version of Tears for Fears “Shout”.

Live Rig Notes
After the show I got to meet and talk with Robbie Bronnimann about the show. He’s using Ableton Live running on a Mac with a Novation Remote SL MK II which he uses to play keyboard parts. He also uses the Remote SL as a controller for Live devices. He is using two Novation Launchpads to control mix, launch clips and scenes, and to control devices.

The entire rig is mounted on a custom tube system which is strapped to a V-Stand and can be packed into a flight case. Speaking of this, he mentioned that this is the only rig the entire band transport. Howard’s Fantom G8 and Jonathan’s drum kit – I believe it was a a Roland TD-20s V-Pro™ Series – are provided locally. So they show up and load their sounds prior to the show. Now that’ s a small carbon footprint.

Howard played all his parts from the Fantom G8. Patches either sounded either spot on from album versions, or where updated and freshened up but still worked very well.

Meet and Greet
Both Howard Jones and Duncan Sheik took time out after the show to do a meet and great for all attendees at the lounge at the back of the theatre which was really cool for the fans. After talking with Robbie, I did manage to get up there and was last in line and briefly met both Howard and Duncan who graciously signed my 25th Anniversary concert at the indigO2 DVD :^).

Great Show!
What a great night. The music and performances were fantastic and the crowd was really into it and often sang along. While this was the last show of this short American tour, I recommend you visit http://howardjones.com/touring.html to stay informed about upcoming shows.

Links

• Howard Jones - Web Site, Twitter, Facebook, Modulate This Posts
• Robbie Bronnimann - Facebook, Twitter, Modulate This Posts
• Jonathan Atkinson - Twitter
• Duncan Sheik - Web Site

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Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

Show Report: Two Days in Denver with Robert Henke (aka Monolake)

Photo: DMNS Gates Planetarium

Robert Henke of Monolake and one of the creators of Ableton live came through Denver and performed his work "Intersection" on Monday and then delivered a lecture at Denver University on Tuesday. This invitation only event was hosted by The Digital Media Studies program at the University of Denver.

This was a real treat as this was one of only a small number Robert's performances in the US. Here is a show report.

MONOLAKE “INTERSECTION” CONCERT MONDAY SEPTEMBER 27TH, GATES PLANETARIUM 
"Intersection" is a work which incorporates “field recordings made in Hanoi in 2009, reconstructed through narrative, music and sounds”. The performance was presented in the context of the amazing full-dome digital theater of the Gates Planetarium. 

Before the show started the event host Trace Reddell, Ph.D. (Director, Digital Media Studies University of Denver) introduced Robert who talked a little bit about the piece and the show.

   

Robert described the show as a real-time collaboration between himself and Gate’s Planetarium’s own VJ / Pilot / Scientist Ka Chun Yu Ph.D. on visuals (pictured below).

They had only met a few hours before the show and the concert was almost completely improvised.

Music and Sound
On the sound side of things, Robert describes “Intersection” as follows:

Intersection is entirely created using field recordings taken in November 2009 in and around the city of Hanoi in Vietnam. The field recordings were transferred to a laptop and layered, filtered, slowed down and processed in many ways to form the composition. The idea of using recordings of day by day sounds as material for musical expression is not new. It has been pioneered shortly after the advent of tape recorders in the late 1940 by the French composer Pierre Schaeffer and others. They coined the term 'musique concrete' for these kind of works.

Modulate This! Show Report: Depeche Mode Live at Red Rocks 2009

I went to the Depeche Mode concert at Red Rocks a few nights back. This is my report including iPHone pictures and some behind-the-scenes info I’ve dug up.

LINEUP
In the lineup were Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andrew Fletcher, along with supporting players Peter Gordeno (Keys), Christian Eigner (Drums).

PERFORMANCE 

I read that Dave Gahan lost his voice and the band cancelled shows a few weeks back. He definitely was a little rough the first few songs but after he got really warmed up he sounded great.

They played probably half of the songs off the new album. They did a nice job working in old songs as well and played the big hits and a few lesser known songs as well. I really was happy that they played “Walking in My Shows” from Songs of Faith and Devotion, “It’s No Good” off of Ultra and “Precious” off of Playing the Angel which are some of my favorite songs. They didn’t play some iconic old hits like “People are People”, but with only 2 hours and such a massive catalog I can see why. Of course they played the killer tracks from Violator such as “Enjoy the Silence”, “Personal Jesus”.

They did a great job translating the songs to the stage and the core synth sounds that make the songs great were all in the mix. They also did some fun remixes as well. I especially liked some of arrangements that were really stripped down and sung by Martin Gore. They provided a nice contrast and his vocals were extremely strong.

One the best songs in the whole show was the last song when Dave Gahan and Martin Gore sang “Waiting for the Night to Come” accompanied only by minimal arpeggiated synth.