Moby Concert at the Vanderbilt

For those not "in the know," Moby is one of the pioneers of the current age of electronica. To put it in perspective, he was kickin' out the techno jams and selling out shows way back in 1991 when those young punks the Chemical Brothers were just starting to get their groove on. I've been a big fan of the "Mobe-ster" for some years now, having seen him once at 1995's Lollapalooza. Needless to say I was looking forward to the July 31, 1999 show at LI's Vanderbilt with great anticipation. Moreso than my companions, none of whom had even heard of the techno-master descendent of Herman Melville (hence the name "Moby", geddit?).

The crew for this particular away mission consisted of regular irregular Donna Z., along with birthday-girl Chrispy K. and her sister. Of all the people I know, there are only a select few who can read my mind, including good friend Jolene and of course my Mommy. So it was interesting to spend time with Donna and Chrispy, who are both on about the same "psychic friends" level -- Donna because we've hung out through innumerable road trips dating back to the days of The Havoc, and Chrispy from LI clubbing and "video slumber parties" back when I (first) attended Dowling College.

It goes without saying that the concert kicked ass! The Vanderbilt as a venue has a snappy art deco look, from the bar/restaurant area downstairs -- where we partook in some pre-show cocktails -- to the concert room upstairs. Even those not familiar with Moby's turntable stylings were swept into the rave-type atmosphere. Random silliness during the course of the show included:

• the gang trying to prevent me from embarrassing myself by hitting on a 17-year-old hottie ("But officer, she didn't look 17...")
• my going hoarse shouting for Moby's rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama" so many times
• Donna giving her number to a shirtless "knackered" Irish guy
• my drinking a whiskey sour that even veteran drinker Donna had reservations about (something about it having so much alcohol in it that it smelled like lighter fluid...)

Things started getting hazy about the time Chrispy and her sister left the show early (that whiskey sour kicked in in a big way). To stop my mooning over the fact that my untouchable "girlfriend" was born when I was a sophomore in high school, Donna pulled me over to hang out with this guy she met, his red-haired brother and a Latina who he introduced as his girlfriend, but who disappeared for the last part of the concert.

We were more than a bit surprised that the lights came up and the bars shut down when the concert ended at 1am. Our thinking was that there were plenty of thirsty attendees (us) prepared to go the extra mile and keep drinking. Most likely the fact that the show was "all-ages" would have made serving drinks a logistical nightmare, but still!

The security guards hustling teenage fans out initially left us alone as we were searching for the missing Latina, but then they started getting more insistent soon enough. Of course that's when I saw a new box of Moby CDs for sale and had to dodge through the bouncers and crowds of exiting kids to get back to the sale table. Good thing I made my goal of purchasing the new album "Play" as I wound up running into the Mobe-ster in the lobby. He's very soft-spoken, and didn't really react when I expressed my disappointment that he didn't play "Sweet Home Alabama". He was a good sport though, and autographed my album with his trademark "alien Moby", as shown to the right.

The post-concert festivities mainly entailed trying to find something to do, but that's another story, and not a good one at that...

PS: I had such a great time, I dragged Chrispy to Moby's return engagement at the Vanderbilt in November!!

PPS: Then we went to see him at NYC's Hammerstain Ballroom on October 22, 2000. A review coming soon...