Information Society Live

The show opened with “Peace and Love Incorporated” and the great thing about this and other parts of the show is that Paul was running the whole thing and overlaying some Think Tank samples and grooves into the InSoc breaks.

They did a great mix of old and new stuff. Like the 3rd song in was Seeds of Pain from the new album (not the new old album). Kurt was impressed that a few people knew the words. Many people there did not know the new songs and that was apparent. Synthesizer is a great album though.

They did a few other songs from it and Kurt would crack jokes like “now with 100% less Chris Anton” - I guess he was the singer on all of the tracks except Seeds of Pain. I don’t know the story there but the guy stepped in and up when needed so not sure why the dis was necessary. Another Kurt bit was during one song he pulled out his cell phone and supposedly took a call from his wife, said goodnight to his kid. I think he just called his office voice mail.

Three of the songs they did just for the show and aren’t on an album. Kurt mentioned that one of the songs is his favorite song that Paul has ever written. The vocals weren’t quite loud enough (by design maybe?) and I couldn’t make out most of the words but the beat was great and a little different than the usual stuff – more like Chicane with nice swells. I hope they are going to put out another album with it on there.

On the vocals Kurt did a good job but of course we are all older and some notes were harder or he would transpose down/rephrase.

Kurt was more animated than expected as I know he has stated that he hates doing this but put 110% out there.

Some of my favorite InSoc songs are the sappy simple ballads. Didn’t expect them to do any but putting that out there. Kurt did seem interested after the show in what people wanted to hear. I think this is a practice run for the LA show so maybe they will bring more songs. Since its all loaded into the computers he basically said “we played every song that we brought”.

One really cool thing that they did was pull a local singer up for What’s On Your Mind. At first I thought they had dug up Amanda (the girl from the first album) but they announced she was local. Nice touch.

I hope these guys do more shows, it was fantastic and entertaining. Paul Robb is amazing period. If you are an InSoc fan but have never checked out Think Tank you need to. A note for Apple fanboys – there were 3 computers on stage – not one apple. The one running the video show looked like an eeePC. Would be curious to know what software Paul was using on the main one running the show – I was close enough to see the screen but couldn’t make it out.

When James Cassidy (guess I should mention him in the review at least once) switched to a keyboard there was a thinkpad on top of it. Other than that he was playing a custom job that had sample pads and a guitar. It looked cool.