Moby - Live: Hotel Tour2005

Tue 18th Apr, 2006 in Music Reviews

It’s probably a fair estimate to say that at least two thirds of the crowd at last year’s Splendour in the Grass festival owned Moby’s breakthrough album- 1999’s Play.  It’s just as fair to say, at least in my experience, that while people were interested to see his set, it was a bit of a take it or leave it proposition.  And after the Finn Brothers had delivered what has to be one of the greatest festival shows ever played in this fair country, his work was certainly cut out for him.

Perhaps that is why the performance that followed was so amazing.  For an hour that Sunday night none of the crowd in the Splendour tent wanted to be anywhere else.  And that’s the reason why I was so keen to review this DVD- to see if the magic comes across onscreen.

And the answer is, inevitably, no.  The indescribable ‘x factor’ that can’t be put into words but people like me will try to define as long as we write is missing.  But apart from that, Hotel 2005 does its best to present a quality show, and in this it succeeds.  Recorded in Belgium, Hotel 2005 (expectedly) delivers a far longer setlist than that which was played in Byron Bay last year, from Moby’s early 1990s rave material, to a healthy dose of tracks from Play (obvious choices like Honey, Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad, Porcelain, Bodyrock and Natural Blues all appear) and Hotel, as well as fantastic (and well received) covers of New Order’s Temptation, Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side, and as one of the three bonus tracks (in addition to the already 24 track strong setlist), The Doors’ Break On Through (To The Other Side).  Also included are a number of short films and the videos for Hotel’s singles Lift Me Up, Raining Again and Beautiful.

A CD of remixes from producers such as Mylo and Benny Benassi rounds out what is, despite the one insurmountable shortcoming, a value for money package.  Fans of the bald one will probably have this already, but even part-timers should get a kick out of Hotel 2005.