Degenerates - Moby and Tommy Sunshine at Hiro 11/15/07

My Degenerates experience last night was much better than last time. I arrived just before midnight. There was a line, but it wasn't too bad, maybe 10 minutes. As I walked in "Once in a Lifetime" by the Talking Heads was playing. I love that song, and somehow have never heard it on a big system, so things were off to an excellent start.

The Spankrock dj's were on at that point. At first I wasn't that into their set. They were playing good, older stuff - Michael Jackson, Bucketheadz "The Bomb", but their transitions weren't really there. By the time I got back from coat check (I think I waited longer in that line than the one to get in, there was just one poor guy working there!) the room had filled up considerably. It became hellish to navigate, but there was still plenty of room to dance in the front toward the right so I parked myself over by the steps and waited. Spankrock's set had picked up a bit. They were playing more current stuff (Put Your Hands Up for Detroit, and a weird, unexpected, but very good remix of Hang Me Up to Dry by Cold War Kids) and the transitioning into and out of songs was much better.

They played for just a bit more, and a little before 1:30 Moby started. The first song or two was hip hop, but I think that was mainly Spankrock finishing up and phasing out. Things got more dance oriented pretty quickly. I have pretty much no idea what he played, but it was good. Very energetic with a bit of an old school feel. The 2 songs I knew, Basement Jaxx - Where's Your Head At? - dope on a big system and a lot of fun. Towards the end he played some of his own stuff and everybody lost it. Then he dropped Underworld's Born Slippy and everyone lost it more.

Also, people were just bugging out over Moby in general. They were just bugging out that he was there. There was constant pressing of peeps right up against the stage for his entire set. If anyone left and a gap opened up, another Moby-iac stepped up and filled it in. They weren't even really dancing - they were standing there all starstruck and kind of moving a little bit. It was weird.

Moby finished his set a little before 2:30 at which point Tommy Sunshine went on. I don't think you can adequately prepare yourself for one of his dj sets. I had never seen him dj before. I actually didn't know who he was until I kept seeing him out, and then got an email about an album he was putting out and made the connection. In any case...he's quite a character when you just look at him - the beard, the long hair, but then seeing him actually dj-ing with his beard and long hair - it is quite the scene. It is just all over the place. It reminded me of Cousin It from the Adams Family crossed with the Yip Yip aliens from Sesame Street. I mean that in the best way possible. He was fun to watch, and his entire set banged pretty hard from the get-go with no let up. Again, no idea what was being played. It seemed like more current stuff, just stuff I am not familiar with at all. It seemed more edgy and rock driven if that makes sense, even though it was definitely dance music. Early in his set I think he sampled the siren from the Chemical Brothers' "Song to the Siren", but I couldn't tell for sure. Whatever it was it sounded pretty cool. I left at about 3:30. The place stayed full pretty late for Hiro, but by then the crowd was pretty small. Tommy was still going strong when I left.

Pictures of course:

Degenerates - Moby and Tommy Sunshine at Hiro 11/15/07

You can also see what Moby had to say about the evening here.