Yesterday I got a reminder from Entourage that the Area2 concert festival was in town, playing the second date of the tour just over the bridge from Philly-town in Camden, NJ. I completely forgot that it was on Tuesday! The festival’s sophomore year talent includes David Bowie, Moby, Busta Rhymes, Blue Man Group and Ash on the main stage and Carl Cox, John Digweed and DJ Tiësto amongst others in the dance tent.
Click on the Read more link below to get the rest of the juice. Warning: No PowerBook content in this article, although Apple was displaying the iPod in a booth in the interactive village.
Yesterday I got a reminder from Entourage that the Area2 concert festival was in town, playing the second date of the tour just over the bridge from Philly-town in Camden, NJ. I completely forgot that it was on Tuesday! The festival’s sophomore year talent includes David Bowie, Moby, Busta Rhymes, Blue Man Group and Ash on the main stage and Carl Cox, John Digweed and DJ Tiësto amongst others in the dance tent.
Unsure of whether or not I wanted to attend I consulted the lineup page that I realized that DJ Dozia started at 2:30PM – holy heat wave Batman! Unable to attend that early, we showed up at around 6PM, but were able to buy two tickets for US$40 in the parking lot. (Caveat Emptor: there are a lot of counterfeit tickets out there, look for the watermark on the rear or do the famous lighter test before buying tickets this way.)
We were missed Blue Man Group but caught most of the Busta Rhymes set which included such favorites as Break Ya Neck, Fire It Up and a kick-ass version of A Tribe Called Quest’s Scenario, I forgot that Busta was featured on that track. The rest of Busta’s set was upbeat and fun and the weather was sunny and beautiful, if not a little muggy (about 95 degrees). The Tweeter at Camden is a great venue because you can watch the amazing sunsets behind the city from the lawn seats. At first my girl was a little confused by the bottle that was being passed around in the front row, clearly visible as the cameraman was following it from person to person. It turns out that Busta does indeed Pass the Courvoisier.
From there we booted it into the Playstation2 Dance Tent to catch John Digweed. The dance tent was located in the vending area at stage left which was (luckily) cooled by several massive air conditioning tubes that were pumping in frigid cold air. At first the tent seemed a little hot, but all it took was a trip to one of the AC tubes to cool you right down. Digweed’s set was loaded with vocal tracks but became more trancy and super hypnotic near the end. The raver crowd seemed to enjoy his style. The tent wasn’t too packed or sweaty and was it was relatively easy to get around. They had a PS2 demo booth in the rear of the tent with about 10 units booted up to the latest titles. We played a little Wave Rally which turned out to more confusing than anything. No, maybe it was the beats…
I had a really difficult time trying to extract myself from the tent but I eventually did with plenty of time to see David Bowie in all his glory. It was funny to observe the amount of people that had shown up just to see Bowie and the fact that Moby was headlining over Bowie. Bowie rocked, plain and simple. Fame was a highlight as was I’m Afraid of Americans and Let’s Dance. Bowie went out with a bang doing a Ziggy Stardust encore. Contrary to what I had read on the boards, the thumping from the dance tent did not interfere with Bowie’s performance in Camden as it apparently had in Washington, D.C.
Back to the tent for Carl Cox who was spinning a combination of hard house and techno trance that featured some new stuff and a remix of Paul Oakenfold’s Ready, Steady, Go. After catching about 40 minutes of Carl’s set (about 30 of which from under the tent’s cooling tubes) we wanted to make our way back to the lawn to see Moby, and it’s a good thing that we did.
Moby, born Richard Melville Hall, was given his nickname at birth due to having Herman Melville as an ancestor. Going in, I didn’t know what to expect of Moby live (headlining, no less!). Would it be a sedate, white stage with Moby standing behind two turntables staring down at them the whole time? Hell no! Moby’s set was more like a cross between Spinal Tap and Herbie Hancock. Moby had an elaborate stage and lighting rig worthy of the Rolling Stones or U2 and featured a large band with several backup singers.
Moby took to the guitar for most of the show and even played Rock Star for a bit, even going so far as yelling profanity-laced audience participation jibes (“Are you mother f***ers ready to rock?!”) between heavy guitar riffs. Moby cooled himself by drinking carrot juice which he told the audience to “imagine was a bottle of Jack Daniels.” Moby played all of the tunes you would expect (We Are All Made of Stars, Natural Blues, Body Rock) but it was the few bars he played of Yes’ classic, Roundabout, that really stick out in my mind. I really wish he would have played the whole thing!
I give Moby a lot of credit for his diverse set and for putting on an incredibly high-energy show. He kept the audience entertained with little soliloquies between songs and showed that he is no wuss by issuing a well deserved slam at Eminem for his childish, homophobic attack. His show rocked and Moby proved himself a worthy closing act.
Area2
Featuring: David Bowie, Moby, Busta Rhymes, Blue Man Group, Ash, Carl Cox, John Digweed and DJ Tiësto and special guests.
- 31 July – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center
- 02 August – Wantagh, NY – Tommy Hilfiger at Jones Beach Theatre
- 03 August – Boston, MA – Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts
- 05 August – Toronto, CAN – The Molson Amphitheatre
- 06 August – Detroit, MI – DTE Energy Music Theatre
- 08 August – Chicago, IL – Tweeter Center Chicago
- 10 August – Denver, CO – Pepsi Center
- 13 August – Los Angeles, CA – Irvine Meadows / Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
- 14 August – San Francisco, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
- 16 August – Seattle, WA – Gorge Amphitheatre
