Thomas Dolby in Annapolis Last Night (Spoilers)

[Ben One]

At the suggestion of DanS, here is a review of the Thomas Dolby show in Annapolis, Maryland last night (May 6, 2006).

 

In summary, it was a very enjoyable, high-quality trip back to Dolby's first three albums in the 1980s. Dolby is returning to music after a 15-year absence, and he is starting his return by playing his favorite songs from the back catalog. He is working on a whole set of new songs that he hopes to play in a second leg of his tour later this year.

 

Dolby was an exemplary one-man band, making great use of his rig while keeping the audience interested in how he was using it. His song choices from the early albums showed excellent taste!

 

Dolby was a likeable and articulate speaker, providing sometimes surprising stories behind some of his songs. He clearly enjoyed doing this small club tour, as he said it reminded him of his early underground days in England.

 

While his voice had trouble finding certain notes and hitting some highs, his voice still sounds the same and his singing improved as the night went on.

 

Opening act Carey Ott, a singer-guitarist, provided a quality opening set. He was backed up by a bass player and a keyboard player who played really simple accompaniment. But it was all about good lyrics and songwriting. The band had a kind of Flat-Earth-album vibe, so I understand why Dolby selected him as an opening act.

 

Very shortly after the opening act, Dolby came onstage. He looked like a comic book figure, with a trenchcoat, completely shaved head and round spectacles. In addition, a headset with video camera, earphones and mic made him look like a bit of a cyborg. Very fun and entertaining.

 

As some of you know, his live rig consists of an Apple running Logic, a CME controller, a Virus 3, a Novation controller, a drum pad, a rack and signal generator (see the "tech geek" section of his blog for more details).

 

He also had a good video setup, though I did not see the screen very well since I was at the side of the stage and was not at a good angle. But it appeared to show lots of shots from Dolby's headcam of his synths and gear, in addition to video footage, some new, and some from his old videos.

 

He started a groove, played lines on his Virus, sang through a vocoder, and launched into "Leipzig" which is a wistful, lesser known song that was originally released as a single and then showed up on the initial version of his first LP. Next came "One of Our Submarines" (written, he said, for an uncle whom he never met) and "Flying North" (in which he used some modern distorted analog synth sounds on his Novation).

 

He then played "I Live in a Suitcase." This song came out in his album from the 1990s, "Astronauts and Heretics," but he surprised me by saying that he actually wrote this on his third day after moving to LA, which I'm assuming was in the early 1980s, as he was at Griffith Observatory watching the stars when he witnessed a brownout in LA. He said the song was written about the woman he married, actress Kathleen Beller.

 

Next, he used his drum pads to build up a song layer by layer, first with a sequenced keyboard line, then drum patterns, then piano, and it was....an instrumental version of Flat Earth! Everyone in the audience enjoyed watching him build up the song this way. He would do this for several other songs that evening. (Follow Stephen Fortner\'s post to a video that shows how he builds that particular song.)

 

Afterwards, he played a beautiful piano introduction which led into "Budapest by Blimp". For the vox, it sounds as if Lena Lovich's voice was sampled, as he played her notes on the Virus.

 

Later, he remarked that he always wondered which songs connected best with his fans, but he could never rely on the record company to tell him. Then in the 90s he could peruse Usenet groups to see that fans were asking each other how to play the beginning chords of Budapest...it made him happy that he was succeeding with those kinds of songs in addition to his hits such as "Science" and "Europa."

 

Next were "Windpower" and "Europa," which got the crowd up and dancing. The synth lines in Europa really triggered nostalgic feelings of the early 80s!

 

He then built up another song layer by layer. It turned out to be..."Hyperactive!" The audience cheered when he played the lead brass line...and the orchestral hits seemed to be missing....but then he bashed them out at the very end!

 

Next, he played the song he said he had to play at every concert..."She Blinded Me with Science"...I have to say that I enjoyed listening to this song live even more than I expected. Hearing the authentic, original synth lines in a high-quality AV system in a live venue was amazing...probably even better than a 24-bit recording on top monitors!

 

As an encore he played "Airhead," once again by building up layer by layer in cycle mode. He inserted a couple of new elements into the song, including some James Brown vox! He played also one of his only solos in the evening during the instrumental break.

 

OK, that's my quick review. Hope some of this is useful. Here is a link to some other impressions of his earlier shows in this forum. Also Dolby's website and blog has far, far more technical information about his setup than I have provided. If you have any questions, post them here and I will try to answer them!

 

Ben

[DanS]

Excellent review Ben, thanks.

I hope he shows his face in Montréal soon.

[ITGITC]

Originally posted by Ben One:

Dolby was an exemplary one-man band, making great use of his rig while keeping the audience interested in how he was using it.

 

Ben

I guess this would make him a POWER SINGLE.

[Ben One]

Thanks, guys. Dolby really sounded intent on doing a second leg of the tour, with new songs, so I hope he stops in Montréal. And he's definitely a Power Single, but he seems to restrict that kind of activity to the stage. As I understand it, he's married to the same woman he met in the 1980s, and has three children. He sounded a bit detached from the LA lifestyle (I don't think he lives there anymore), but said he still has a fondness for the place.

Ben

[Sven Golly]

Thanks very much, Ben. I'm also hoping he does some Canadian dates later this year.

 

Originally posted by Ben One:

(I don't think he lives there anymore), but said he still has a fondness for the place.

Ben

From Stephen's article:

 

...as it turns out he lives not far from our office.

[Ben One]

Hope so, too, Sven. He certainly has some appreciative fans in Canada.

 

I'm guessing he (and Steve) now live in the SF area, which is a very different vibe from LA. Though one recent article on google news said his home state is New Jersey, which is weird...

 

Ben

[Sven Golly]

Actually, I read that too, and was confused... until I realized it wasn't TD himself that posted it, but "lunesse" who seems to be his tour coordinator/merch person/right hand woman. Didn't search the site too thoroughly to find out more, but she's on the road with him at the moment. Not sure if she's his wife under a 'net name or not.

 

She mentions in that blog post that she's using "TD's laptop". That's what tipped me off.

[Ben One]

Thanks for the clear-up. I've concluded that TD's wife (Kathleen) and lunesse (his manager) are different people...an amazon profile for "lunesse" mentions TD and lists her birthday as 7/18 while imdb says that Kathleen's birthday is in February...But most compellingly, someone has to watch the kids while TD is on his road trip!

Ben

[Sven Golly]

Hehehe... yeah, I thought about the children after I'd posted...

 

Well, it appears the mystery is solved... partially, at least.

 

If TD ever graces us Canucks with a show, I'll make a point of asking him who lunesse is.

[Ben One]

You'd probably get a chance to meet her--she sounds very accessible..and cool!