From: pashdown@slack.sim.es.com (Pete Ashdown)
     To: klf@asylum.sf.ca.us
   Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 14:36:56 -0600 (MDT)
Subject: Orb Be in U

I just got over one of the most incredible weekends of my life.  Excuse me if
I sound a little dazed, but I've really lived a lifetime these past three
days.

Friday night, I boarded a flight for San Francisco, flying in for one reason,
and one reason only.  To see The Orb.  When I first saw The Orb two years ago,
it was with 100 other people in a small Salt Lake City venue for $3.  I had no
interest in DJing, throwing parties, or doing any sort of promotions.  That
night turned my life around as I danced harder than I have ever done to music
that I had, for the most part, never heard before.  It was a pivotal point in
my life.

I had attempted to book them for this tour in Salt Lake, and although they
expressed an interest, it turned out that they couldn't make it through on
their schedule.  Matt E. Silver is a gem of an agent/promoter and the nicest
guy on the planet as well.  If there is anyone in this country I could pick to
run a tour for the scene, and not for exploitation, it would be Matt E.  I
told him that I would try and fly out to see Orb wherever I could do so, and
he stated that I should tell him where so he could put me on the guest list.
It turned out that he did a lot more than that for me.

Brian Behlendorf picked me up at the airport and after some noodling around,
we went to a fantastic Vietnamese restaurant near the Warfield for dinner.  I
hurridly chowed down my food, and stated that I had to find the tour manager
before things got underway.

I ended up having to wait for around an hour before Matt E. finally showed up.
Malcolm, the UK manager apologized for having me wait and slapped me a pass.
Besides the one I scored for Jon Drukman, these were the only two "FLOCK!"
passes that I saw running around that night (besides the one that Alex was
wearing).  The crew had the "All Pastures" badges, but that was about it.  I
was given a rather privileged position for the night, being able to go
*anywhere* but not have any responsibilities.

Jon and I watched Alex and Thrash do some soundchecking for a while.  I got a
good close look at Alex's equipment, which included a Stanton CD-33 DJ CD
player.  I also got to talk with Buck about his Universe gig, which sound
absolutely amazing.  I asked him about doing Salt Lake and he gave me a really
reasonable price.  He's a very nice guy.

I also got to meet the Reese Pursell, the guy who is responsible for
Astralwerks in New York.  It was a total surprise to run into him on this
tour, but looking at the Wau!/Mr. Modo based "Excursions into Ambience II"
promo I got, it isn't surprising at all.  Reese gave me a preview of the
future of his label, and without a doubt, this is going to be the best dance
label in America.  Its very exciting to look forward to, but it was also very
flattering for him to be the one person who I sent promo packets to who heaped
high praises on my writing.

While talking to Matt E. in one of the offices, a fatherly sort of figure
walked into the room with a permanent smile on his face.  Matt introduced him
as Adam Morris, which didn't register with me until later.  I knew he was
someone, but I couldn't remember who.  I was in such a dazed state that I was
having trouble remembering names of people who were close to me.

The lineup of DJ's changed to give Alex and Lewis time to DJ.  Alex took the
stage first at 10:00 to spin off a very interesting set.  It wasn't closely
beatmatched, more use of taking advantage of beatless breaks, but it was still
wonderful to watch and listen to.  During his set is when I noticed the lights
the most.  They had four 20 foot cloth spheres that they were doing
projections off.  My favorites were when they projected an earth with a black
and white baby, and then an enormous eye that blinked back at the audience.
The slides and film loops were high class.  The video, unfortunately, was not.
Standard computer animation videos, and other junk with what seemed to be one
single Video Toaster 4000 running the show.  The stuff I've seen our own Taste
VJ do, ZapKerPow!, kicked their butts all over the floor.  Too bad to have
those huge screens with no punch behind them.

While Lewis DJ'd, I wandered around backstage again.  I finally found the
dressing room where Alex and the rest of the backing musicians were hanging
out.  There was a large star, with the name "Jerry" painted on the door.  Matt
E. introduced me to Alex and said that I had some things to give him.  It was
Alex's birthday by coincidence, so it was kind of nice to have brought him
some presents.  I gave him a book filled with pictures of Utah, a Taste
t-shirt, and copies of all the fliers I have done along with rave journals
that I have written bound into a book.  In addition, I wrote Alex and Kris a
letter which he read very closely and carefully.  Alex seemed genuinely
touched by what I had written and put out his closed fist (a gesture which he
and Adam Morris seemed to use exclusively) for me to punch my closed fist
into.  I felt embarrased to have brought my entire Orb collection along with
me for him to sign, so the bag stayed closed all night.  Alex stated that he
was in need of some reading material for the tour and thanked me for the
books.

It wasn't much longer before he got up to take the stage again.  I returned to
the audience to watch what I had been so anxiously awaiting for two years.
They kicked off with a new track, "Plateau" which was a bit more than ambient.
More along the lines of "4th Dimension".  After playing a highly remixed
version of "Little Fluffy Clouds" a few others, and "Blue Room" I realized I
was being stupid to have to deal with being crowded and pushed around by other
people when I had a pass.  I went up to a vantage point on the stage, no more
than 15 feet (but not visible to the audience) and danced my way into space.
I stayed there for the rest of the show, watching Alex mix and Thrash tweeking
knobs on his monster-equalizer (this thing is about 12 feet wide).  I was
slurping in the moment as hard as I could.  The sound in front of the stage
wasn't that great, so the sound in the back was a bit muddled.  Did I CARE
though?  I was seeing angels at that point.

"The Valley", the other new track, kicks some serious booty.  I can't wait to
get this thing in my paws.  Most of the night was taken up by "Adventures"
material.  The only tracks from "U.F.Orb" were "Blue Room" and "Towers of
Dub".

Alex's girlfriend came up and stood beside me and danced a bit.  I turned to
her and asked if it ever got boring.  She said that it did sometimes, but she
always looked forward to new places to play.

After almost two hours of this, the show came to a close with my favorite,
"Outlands" which rolled over the audience like a tidal wave.  While I was
madly moving around in the darkness on the side, I saw Alex glance over at me
with a grin.

Finally, they ended.  I asked a stage hand to get me a setlist (which I left
at home today) to keep.  Then I went down into the basement where a girl was
spinning some very groovy soul and jazz.  She simply segued from one record
into another, which taught me a lesson about DJing.  Sometimes it isn't all
technique, but just the music that make you move.  I hung around in that room
for a while and danced, then tried to make my way back to the dressing room to
retrieve my music and t-shirts.  I was surprised to find that access had been
restricted to everyone except the crew.  Reese told me that they would open it
up soon, so I went back and relaxed in the backstage dancefloor.  Adam Morris
walked by and asked me if I enjoyed the show, I told him it was unbelievable
and he put his fist out for me to bash.  I thought he was trying to shake my
hand at first, and after a bit of confusion, we finally bashed/shook each
other's fists.

Around 3:30, I got very nervous about things, so I went up onto the stage,
down another stairway, and basically snuck into the dressing room.  Alex and
Kris weren't there, but my records were, so I sat down and grabbed a much
needed bottle of water.

While sitting there listening to people talk, it finally registered to me who
Adam Morris was.  He's Mr. Modo of the label.  I asked him if he was any
relation to Mixmaster Morris and he laughed and said no.  I told him about the
rumor that he was the same person (which he obviously isn't) and he seemed
very peeved about that and stated that he might as well be since Rising High
copied everything that Wau!/Mr. Modo did.  I then asked about the deal with
Big Life, and then followed up with that I really didn't need to know if he
didn't want to talk about it.  He affirmed that with another laugh.  Adam went
on to talk with me about the records that the Hardkisses had given him,
especially one known as "Ultraviolet Catastrophe" which I gave a sparkling
recommendation.  We then talked about the Grand Canyon and about how they
wanted to see that on this tour.  I managed to convince them that it would be
much easier and more rewarding to see Zion National Park, then told him about
the book I gave Alex.

It was getting close to closing, so we both left the dressing room after
saying our goodbyes.  Apparently Alex and Thrash had collapsed on the bus
after the show, no doubt to a large amount of jet lag, so I didn't see them
again.  I went back to the auditorium and met up with Brian and the rest of
the SFRaves crew and tried to find a ride to the airport from the afterparty.
Reese was supposed to spin, so I was looking forward to hearing him.  However,
no such luck was able to come my way.  After the night's experiences though, I
wasn't too disappointed.  I thanked Matt E. (for the umpteenth time) and said
goodbye to Reese.

After being held over in the airport until 10:30, I was on my way home.

Other things happened this weekend, such as promoting and running a sold-out
Crash Worship show that night in Salt Lake City, then helping out the owners
of the venue in running the second held-over night on Sunday, but I won't bore
you with the fantastic details of that experience.  I'm aware of what a pig I
am for posting all of above on the net, but I know my life is hard. :-)  Grab
the brass ring folks, there's nothing you can't do.