Moby @ Meltdown festival, Royal Festival Hall, June 16
IT'S 10 years since Moby released the 10 million selling album Play. It catapulted him to fame and we revelled in his odd ball, kooky ways – the religion, the drugs, his vegan lifestyle. But over the years he's grown up and mellowed out, and so have his fans. Tonight looks like a Guardian readers' convention – all Gap shirts and long shorts, the laptop cases and suit jackets tucked behind the seats of the Royal Festival Hall.
It's the first night of the tour to plug his new album Wait For Me, and it's also the middle night of the Southbank's Meltdown festival. Moby's nervous. "Usually we play a few shows before we get to a big city but tonight well, I'm feeling a little insecure," he admits.
But he needn't be. With a seven piece band in tow and the vocal force that is Joy Malcolm as back up, he's every inch the superstar.
It's a slow start and things don't really kick in until a few songs into the set when he unleashes '91 breakthrough single Go, which he dedicates to Twin Peaks director David Lynch. As he switches between guitar and bongos, a techni coloured light show illuminates the hall and gets the audience on its feet, causing the security guards to scurry around, ushering dancers out of the aisles. Moby laps it all up, egging everyone on - it's like watching a preacher – he raises his arms skyward and they all follow. With the luke warm response to his recent releases its been easy to forget that he was God to a generation of dance fans.
Other highlights are Natural Blues which, like many of the tracks from Play, were slowed down and vamped up for the night, piling on even more strings and piano.
He throws in a few tracks from his new album Wait For Me. One of the best, Mistake, shows off his versatility. It verges on college rock – he takes over vocal duty and attacks his guitar, a reminder of his post punk/metal past. A cover of Joy Divison's New Dawn Fades follows before normal service is resumed with Porcelain, a song he reveals "I didn't like it and didn't want to put it on the album. My manager persuaded me, which was a good thing – people seem to like it..."
A stripped back We Are All Made of Stars ("The only disco song jointly inspired by quantum mechanics and dim witted celebrities") is followed by a spine tingling, dramatic version of Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad. He again takes to the piano, leaving Malcolm to diva strut across the stage.
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's Helpless and his own Honey wrap up the evening, the latter morphing into a 10 minute jam, giving him chance to show off his blues guitar skills.
By his own admission he looks like "the man who rented the catering truck to the caterers," but tonight he holds the stage. His 15 year old back catalogue feels as fresh and exciting as it ever has. A brilliant show and a reminder, years after the over-kill of Play, of what a talent he is.
