Moby Pays Tribute to Stephen Hawking, John Lee Hooker
By DONNA BALANCIA
Moby gave political commentary, told anecdotes and performed songs off his new album at The Echo in Los Angeles Wednesday night.
It was the first of three sold-out performances at the smaller of two Spaceland music venues in Echo Park.
The beloved musician who said he wrote his first song when he was a child, gave plenty of banter on a range of topics, including his appearance. He joked he had no problem with people taking photographs but would prefer that everyone use a “filter to give him better posture.” He admitted he spends most of his time hunched over a computer.
Moby: The Echo is ‘Close to Home’
Many were surprised he selected the local venue to play. But he said he had a “provincial” reason: It’s close to home, he said. The musician, producer and vegan restaurateur has been wheeling and dealing in real estate, recently putting one of his Los Feliz homes on the market for $4.495 million.
The notoriously outspoken musician played 19 songs, most of which were off the new album, Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt. The only song he did not perform off the Slaughterhouse-Five referenced record was “Welcome to Hard Times,” which is ironic, considering his aim to get the Republicans out of office. But he had other plans.
Moby and The Republican Party
Before launching into his 1991 song “Go,” he made a reference to an important Democratic victory in the mid-term elections.
“This song is 27 years old,” he said. “Like Conor Lamb who just won District 18 in Pennsylvania, he’s 33, so he’s six years older than when this song was written.”
He added: “In other news, do whatever you can to vote and give money to candidates for mid-term elections because the goal is not just to win the mid-terms. It’s to relegate Republicans as a footnote of history. It’s not like ‘We disagree with them and it’s time for us to win.’ No, it’s time for them to just f*cking go away.”
John Lee Hooker, Stephen Hawking Tributes
Moby, always the blues lover, also ventured out on a limb, trying out a new song inspired by John Lee Hooker called “A Dark Cloud is Coming.”
He wrapped the evening with songs familiar to the packed house, including “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?” “South Side,” and “Natural Blues” off the 1999 album, Play; and “Almost Home” off the 2013 album, Innocents.
Moby also paid tribute to physicist Stephen Hawking, who passed away Wednesday, by performing “We Are All Made of Stars” off 18.
Set List: Mere Anarchy; Middle Is Gone; Falling Rain and Light; The Waste of Suns; Why Does my Heart Hurt So Bad; Porcelain; This Wild Darkness; The Tired and The Hurt; The Last of Goodbyes; A Dark Cloud is Coming; Sorrow Tree; Ceremony of Innocence; Like a Motherless Child; South Side; Extreme Ways; Natural Blues; Go; We Are All Made of Stars; Almost Home.
Moby performs “A Dark Cloud Is Coming” his John Lee Hooker style song:
