The Orb – Venue – September 25, 2013
Celebrating 25 years since the formation of The Orb, Alex Patterson and Thomas Fehlmann make a tour stop at Venue. While The Orb’s peak of popularity was in the early 90s they haven’t stopped performing and recording albeit with varying line-ups. Patterson has been the one mainstay as the main DJ, partnering with many other producers, engineers and musicians over the years.
As originators of the ambient house sound The Orb filled many a club night and rave pit with dancers. Many of those dancers showed up at Venue reminiscing on their own 90s heydays. The surprisingly male demographic were clearly having a great time reviving their old dance moves judging my the wafts of smoke fragrance in the air they were perhaps assisted by something more than alcohol. While The Orb were on the cutting edge in their day, the over 2 hour long DJ was a reminder of the era before technology as Patterson still uses vinyl and beat matches manually. There was something refreshing and ‘real’ about hearing slight mismatches on the transitions between tracks. Always well known for their visuals, this was no exception as a non-stop stream of occasionally nonsensical videos played overhead adding to the nostalgic trip down memory lane.
Although it’s hard to believe 25 years has past it was a nice to take a trip back with The Orb.
Follow the rest of their tour online at TheOrb.com, on Twitter @OrbInfo and Facebook.com/TheOrb