Sound Check — Geoff Carter: Underworld: Wholly familiar invasion

Friday, Sept. 22, 2000 | 8:59 a.m.

Geoff Carter's music column appear Fridays. Reach him at carter@ vegas.com

Underworld is to pop techno what 1970s-era Van Halen was to metal.

Both bands have a hyperactive frontman: Underworld has the skinny, terrifically entertaining Karl Hyde, and you know whom Van Halen had. Both bands have crack talents at their core -- but where guitarist Eddie Van Halen's dissatisfaction with the band's direction led to a revolving door for lead vocalists, producer and DJ Darren Emerson's ennui merely led him out of the band.

"Everything Everything," Underworld's first live recording and -- as far as I know -- the first live release by a techno outfit, boasts Underworld at full strength. The crisp, crystalline synth that opens "Juanita/Kiteless" announces that the band knows it's firing its best shot, and the barrage never lets up. By the time the "Trainspotting" hit "Born Slippy NUXX" comes to bear, you are punch drunk in the most positive definition of the phrase.

Though practically every last note lives in a motherboard, Underworld never allows itself to become the ghost in the machine. Listen to "Cups" and you can practically see Emerson and keyboardist Rick Smith leaning into their work, pounding keys and buttons and all but ripping the equipment apart to get the desired effect. (When Underworld played Las Vegas -- one pathetically under-attended night at the House of Blues -- Smith, Hyde and Emerson left the stage drenched in sweat. Rock on, lads.)

As for Hyde -- well, I fully expect he'll end up in the vernacular someday: "I'm gonna go Karl Hyde on this scanner if it doesn't start working soon." There's a stuttering, nervous cool to his vocals. He literally faces down the programming, steering his vocals around the beeps, whooshes and thunderclaps as if daring them to smack him down; he sounds as if he's running through room full of snakes, sipping a cup of tea as he goes.

The programming even allows Hyde to duet with himself, something Diamond Dave only wished he could do in a live setting. The hypnotic mantra of "crazy, crazy, crazy" that opens "Pearl's Girl" slowly fades to the background as Hyde spouts stream-of-consciousness lyrics in counterpoint: "Rioja rioja /the Reverend Al Green / deep blue morocco / the water on stone."

Most of the material on "Everything Everything" is drawn from the phenomenal "Beaucoup Fish," easily a techno benchmark. On the 1998 release, Underworld found a perfect balance between hypnotic and frenetic, and the songs only gain power in a live setting. "Jumbo" is slinky, sexy and gorgeous, while the pulse-pounding "King of Snake" -- built around Giorgio Moroder's "I Feel Love" bass riff -- feels like running a breathless mile.

The crowd goes absolutely nuts throughout "Everything Everything," saving their biggest response for the opening riff to "Rez/Cowgirl" -- soon to be as familiar a pump-it-up cry as Edwardo's opening riff on "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love."

Even as the track quickens the heart, it seems a bit sad -- without Emerson, Underworld's sound will almost certainly change, and perhaps not for the better. But "Everything Everything," like the best live recordings, dutifully holds the excitement of the moment in place -- that beautiful pause between jumping in the air and landing on your feet.